The rate of new COVID-19 cases in India is higher than all of North America, Johns Hopkins data shows

• The rate of new COVID-19 cases in India is skyrocketing.
• India reported 330,000 new cases in a 24-hour span on Friday.
• That rate far exceeds the rate of new cases across the entirety of North America, according to Johns Hopkins data.

India's rate of daily new confirmed COVID-19 cases are skyrocketing higher than that of all of North America combined, according to Johns Hopkins University's Coronavirus Resource Center.

India reported just 11,300 additional cases per day in February 2021 but just two months later, in April, the country is reporting more than 330,000 new cases per day- a 2,820% increase.

That equates to a rate of 204 new cases per 1 million people, far surpassing the rate of infection across an entire continent: North America, which saw roughly 134.5 new cases per 1 million people.

India surpassed 15 million total cases of coronavirus on Monday. The country has the world's second-highest cumulative number of cases and second-highest number of recorded deaths in the world, behind only the United States.

The massive spike in coronavirus cases has already led to an oxygen shortage in northern Indian hospitals. Previous Insider reports noted that some hospitals had just hours of oxygen left before running out. Some Indian families resorted to stealing oxygen tanks from hospitals, but Indian Railways recently began transporting oxygen tankers onto express trains to try and alleviate the crisis.

The United States has seen success lowering case rates as vaccines become increasingly accessible, but India's vaccine rollout has not been nearly as successful. India originally expected the Serum Institute of India to produce 100 million COVAX vaccine doses per month for the country, but a fire at the facility in January shrank its production to just 60 to 65 million units per month instead.

Several variants of COVID have been discovered in India, including the quick-spreading B.1.1.7 strain first discovered in the UK. Scientists also recently discovered a deadly "triple-mutant" strain of COVID in India that may be more resistant to vaccinations than other strains. It's currently unclear how effective the current vaccines are against the new strain.