The Latest: India reports nearly 25,000 new virus infections

NEW DELHI — India has reported nearly 25,000 new coronavirus infections and 487 new deaths.

The new infections announced by the Health Ministry on Thursday bring the nationwide total to 767,296, the third most reported by any country.

The surge in infections comes as the Institute of Mathematical Sciences in Chennai says its calculated transmission rate for the virus rose during the first week of July to 1.19 after steadily falling from a peak of 1.83 in March. A transmission rate is the number of new infections estimated to stem from a single case.

India’s infection numbers have skyrocketed since the government eased lockdown restrictions and as testing has ramped up to more than 200,000 samples a day, compared to just a few hundred a day in March.

Health experts say the true extent of the virus’s spread in India is unknown and that the country must test more given its population of nearly 1.4 billion people.

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HERE’S WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THE VIRUS OUTBREAK:

— Trump to U.S. schools: Reopen or you may lose federal funds.

— Getting children back to school safely could mean keeping high-risk spots like bars and gyms closed.

— Americans face testing delays as virus surges.

— China defends WHO, lashes out at U.S. move to withdraw

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Follow all of AP’s pandemic coverage at http://apnews.com/VirusOutbreak and https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak

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HERE’S WHAT ELSE IS HAPPENING:

MELBOURNE, Australia — The Australian state worst effected by coronavirus has recorded 165 new COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours, as an outbreak at a Melbourne high school becomes the state’s largest cluster.

Victoria state Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton said Thursday that six of the new cases are...