India's coronavirus death toll crosses 50,000 

The death toll from the corona virus in India went past 50,000 on Monday, with more than 900 new deaths reported in the past 24 hours.

The country last week surpassed the United Kingdom, the world's fourth-most affected country, after the United States, Brazil and Mexico, with 2.6 million infections.

According to the Ministry of Health's website, the number of deaths from epidemic diseases in India is now 50,921, with an increase of 941 from the previous day.

The world's second most populous country, home to the world's largest cities and the largest slums, is already the third most affected country behind the United States and Brazil.

Experts say India needs to increase tests to control the virus as it spreads to rural and regional areas where healthcare systems are particularly fragile or not easily accessible.

"Once we get a green signal from our scientists, we will launch massive production of the vaccine. We have made all the preparations," Modi said in an Independence Day speech on Saturday.

"We have drawn an outline to ramp up the production of the vaccines and to make it available to each and every person in the shortest possible time."

Modi's government imposed one of the world's toughest lockouts in March, hitting Asia's third-largest economy hard and causing distress to the country's poor, leaving millions of migrant workers jobless overnight.

Many people from cities including New Delhi, Mumbai and Ahmedabad went back to their home villages. Some died along the way. Since then, lockdown has been constantly softened, but many sectors have complained of severe staff shortages.

Meanwhile, state and local governments across the country have reimposed the lockdown measures as the virus has spread to small towns and rural areas, where about 70% of Indians live.

In many rural areas, however, recovery evidence suggests that measures to prevent the spread, such as masks and distances, have been largely ignored.

In addition, a lack of awareness among people has helped to infect people away from the virus, making people more reluctant to test.

Despite the rising death toll, the health ministry tweeted on Sunday that the death toll from the virus in India was "one of the lowest globally" less than two per cent.