India's coronavirus infections has past 20 million, boosted by 357,229 new cases over the past 24 hours.

Deaths rose 3,449 for a total toll of 222,408, health ministry data showed.

India has become the world's second nation, after the United States, to pass the grim 20 million milestone for infections.

It took the South Asian country just over four months to add 10 million cases, versus more than 10 months for its first 10 million.

The country has witnessed scenes of people dying outside overwhelmed hospitals and funeral pyres lighting up the night sky.

Infections have surged in India since February in a disastrous turn blamed on more contagious variants of the virus as well as government decisions to allow massive crowds to gather for Hindu religious festivals and political rallies before state elections.