India surpasses 500,000 COVID-19 cases

India has reported more than 500,000 cases of COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic, surpassing the grim milestone on Saturday after announcing around 18,500 new cases in the past day.

Nearly 400 people have died in the country from the pandemic in the last day, bringing the total number of deaths in the country from the virus to 15,685, according to India’s health ministry.

In particular, the pandemic has hit India’s dense urban populations the hardest, and the country’s outbreak isn’t expected to peak for at least several more weeks, Agence France-Presse reported.

Government officials in New Delhi have predicted that the city will reach half a million cases by the end of July.

With almost 509,000 confirmed cases, India is fourth in the world behind Russia, Brazil and the U.S., according to official data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Among those cases in India, nearly 200,000 are considered active, while almost 300,000 patients have recovered or been discharged, according to data from the country’s health ministry.

The U.S. has also struggled with a surge of the virus, as Texas and Florida have both had to reinstate stricter social distancing policies after experiencing record high numbers in the past week. Overall, the U.S. has more than 2.4 million confirmed cases and more than 125,000 deaths.