India’s Covid death toll passes 200,000: official data

India’s coronavirus death toll passed 200,000 on Wednesday with more than 3,000 fatalities reported in 24 hours for the first time, official data showed.

A total of 201,187 people have now died in India in the pandemic, health ministry data showed, although many experts suspect that the true toll is higher.

India has now reported 18 million infections, an increase of 360,000 in 24 hours. This month alone it has added almost six million new cases.