MUMBAI, Sep 7 (Reuters) - India surpassed Brazil in the number of COVID-19 infections on Monday and became the second country in the world with the highest number of cases after the United States due to a record rise in infections, but the Government resumed subway services and announced plans to reopen the Taj Mahal this month.
The Government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, faced with a pandemic that does not give up, has chosen to end a good part of the restrictions in an attempt to get the economy out of an acute crisis generated by confinements.
The second most populous country in the world registered more than 90,000 cases on Monday and surpassed the total number of 4.2 million infections, some 68,000 more infections than Brazil, which will issue its daily report in the afternoon.
At the current rate, India could exceed the United States' figure of 6.2 million cases by next month, as the disease spreads from big cities like New Delhi and Mumbai to inland areas where more than 1.3 billion Indians, according to experts.
"It has become a double burden now," Rajib Dasgupta, professor of public health at Jawaharlal Nehru University, told Reuters.
"Urban areas are showing a slowdown in infections and rural areas are registering a higher rate of spread," he said.
India's death toll, however, stands at 71,642, far below the nearly 193,000 deaths in the United States and the 126,000 deaths in Brazil. The Government says high recovery rates indicate its strategy of mass testing, case tracing and treatment is working.
The fight against coronavirus is putting severe pressure on India's hospitals.
Doctors at the Max Smart Super specialty hospital, which has the largest network of private medical centers treating COVID-19 in the Indian capital, say they are exhausted and facing staff shortages after more than six months of constant work.
(Reporting by Shilpa Jamkhandikar in Mumbai and Saurabh Sharma in Lucknow. Edited in Spanish by Marion Giraldo)
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