India's COVID-19 death toll surpasses 300,000

India's COVID-19 death toll has topped 300,000 amid New Delhi’s efforts to contain the huge outbreak of the coronavirus.

According to Press TV, health ministry data showed on Monday that the COVID-19 death toll had risen to 303,720 and the total number of infections reached more than 26.7 million.

The South Asian nation is the third country with the highest number of COVID-19 fatalities, after the United States with 589,000, and Brazil with 450,000.

Indian health experts, however, believe that the real number is much higher, particularly as the disease spreads beyond major cities into rural areas where the majority of the 1.3 billion population lives and where health facilities and record-keeping is poor.

The pandemic has not only overwhelmed medical staff and administrators at hospitals but also led to a severe shortage of oxygen and critical drugs.

India has administered close to 200 million vaccines but experts say the inoculation program needs to be ramped up significantly to effectively contain the pandemic.

Another Asian country that has faced criticism over a slow inoculation rate is Japan, whose medics advise against holding the Olympic Games this summer.

Till now, just two percent of Japan's 125 million population has been fully vaccinated.

Meanwhile, hospitals in Japan's second-largest city of Osaka are buckling under a huge wave of new coronavirus infections, running out of beds and ventilators as exhausted doctors warn of a "system collapse."

ME