On Friday, India's death toll from COVID-19 surpassed half a million, a figure many health experts believe was exceeded last year but obscured by inaccurate analysis and an unknown number of fatalities in the hinterlands, where millions remain vulnerable to the disease.
The country saw an increase of 1,072 COVID-19 deaths in a single day, bringing the total to 500,055 in the last 24 hours, the updated data showed.
Some 335 deaths were reported from Kerala, the southern state that has been updating data with deaths from last year for weeks.
Kerala, with a population of less than 3% of India's 1.35 billion people, accounts for nearly 11% of all deaths reported in the country.
According to official data, the country, which ranks fourth in the world in terms of the number of fatalities, recorded 400,000 deaths by July last year following a devastating outbreak of the coronavirus variant Delta.
India's states record deaths from COVID-19 after collating data from their districts. Several states have updated their death tolls in recent months, some under pressure from the country's highest court.
In the majority of cases, authorities stated that lapses occurred as a result of delayed registrations and other administrative errors.
India is currently experiencing a third wave of the coronavirus, led by the Omicron variant, which some top experts believe is already in community transmission, despite the fact that most cases are mild, according to federal officials.
The Health Ministry reported that the country's virus positivity rate decreased to 9.26% from 11.6% yesterday, while the weekly positivity rate remained at 14.15%.
The government relaxed testing standards last month, instructing states to waive mandatory testing for contacts of confirmed cases unless they were elderly or suffering from other conditions. However, as the number of tests decreased, the government issued a revised circular warning states that they would miss the virus's spread.
However, because many infected individuals chose not to test, total infection numbers may underestimate the extent and severity of cases, according to Gautam Menon, a physics and biology professor at Ashoka University near the capital who has been monitoring the virus's spread.
Based on latest official figures, India now has 41.95 million COVID-19 infections, ranking second globally behind the United States.
Meanwhile, according to a senior government official, authorities in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's home state of Gujarat have received more than 100,000 claims for COVID-19 compensation, of which 87,000 have been approved.
