INDIA hit another grim milestone in the coronavirus pandemic today, while confirmed cases across Africa topped a million.

India's Health Ministry reported 62,538 cases on Friday, raising the nation’s total to 2,027,074. The death toll now stands at 41,585.

India has the third-highest caseload in the world after the United States and Brazil. It has the fifth-most deaths but its fatality rate of about 2 per cent is far lower than that of the US (3.3 per cent) or Brazil (3.4 per cent).

Around 900,000 members of an all-female community health force engaged in contact tracing, personal-hygiene drives and quarantine centres began a two-day strike today in protest at the failure to provide them with personal protective equipment (PPE) or additional pay, according to organiser A R Sindhu.

The health workers, known as Accredited Social Health Activists — or Asha, which means “hope” in several Indian languages — are deployed in each village by the Health Ministry.

But while their regular work hasn’t reduced, they are increasingly being involved by state governments in the fight against the pandemic, Ms Sindhu said.

“But Asha workers don’t have masks, PPE or even sanitisers,” she said.

Despite the increased and more dangerous workload, the Ashas’ salaries have remained static at roughly 2,000 rupees (£20) per month.

The families of at least a dozen women who have died from the virus have received no compensation from India's federal insurance for frontline healthcare workers because their deaths were not recorded as Covid-19 related, Ms Sindhu said.

Meanwhile the World Health Organisation (WHO) warned on Thursday that Africa had reached a “pivotal point,” as the virus has spread beyond major cities and into “distant hinterlands” where few health resources exist and reaching care could take days.

South Africa, the continent's most developed country, has struggled to cope as hospital beds fill up and confirmed cases passed more than half a million, the fifth-highest in the world.

The country's Medical Research Council reported last week that many Covid-19 deaths were going uncounted as people avoid health centres and resources are diverted to the pandemic.