India on Friday, August 14, 2020 overtook Britain as the country with the fourth-highest number of deaths linked to COVID-19 in the world, according to data released by the Ministry of Health.
On Thursday a total of 1,007 deaths were reported, taking the countrywide death toll to 48,040.
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), the development places it behind the U.S., Brazil and Mexico.
India, a country of 1.3 billion people, also reported 64,553 new infections on Thursday.
This takes its total of people infected by the coronavirus to 2.46 million.
However, the Indian Government maintained that the situation was improving, with the current recovery rate at over 70 per cent and the death rate below two per cent, which was among the lowest globally.
The low testing rate in the country has reaped criticism from health experts.
On Thursday, India carried out 848,728 tests, which is below its target of one million tests per day.
According to the Indian Council of Medical Research, around 28 million tests have been carried out since Jan. 26.
