India has reported 53,480 new cases of the coronavirus, health ministry data showed, the second day that cases have risen less than the day before.

Deaths were at their highest since mid-December, according to a Reuters tally, with 354 people dying of the coronavirus in the last 24 hours, the ministry said, taking total mortalities to 162,468.

With more than 12 million cases of the coronavirus reported since the beginning of the outbreak last year, India is the third-worst affected country in the world, after the United States and Brazil.