BENGALURU (Reuters) – India’s coronavirus case tally surged to 6.23 million after it reported 80,472 new infections in the last 24 hours, data from the health ministry showed on Wednesday.

Deaths from coronavirus infections rose by 1,179 in the last 24 hours to 97,497, the ministry said.

The south Asian nation, which is second only to the United States in terms of total cases, has a scope for higher infections with a large chunk of the population still unexposed to the virus, a survey showed on Tuesday.

(Reporting by Derek Francis in Bengaluru; Editing by Christian Schmollinger)

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