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India's official coronavirus death toll leapt by more than 2,000 on Wednesday as the hard-hit country struggles to contain a ballooning health crisis that has overwhelmed hospitals, according to AFP.

Authorities said the sharp increase in fatalities to 11,903 was mainly due to Mumbai and Delhi updating their figures.

Death tolls in both cities have been increasing in recent days.

Mumbai blamed unspecified accounting "discrepancies" for the increase of 862 to 3,165 deaths.

Delhi added more than 430 fatalities, taking its total to over 1,800.

Officials said 93 of the Delhi deaths and 55 in Mumbai had been in the previous 24 hours.

The epidemic has badly hit India's densely populated major cities and Chennai in the south has ordered a new lockdown from Friday because of a surge in cases.

Hospitals in Mumbai have been overwhelmed, while the government has sent specially-adapted railway carriages to Delhi and authorities have taken over hotels and banquet halls to accommodate coronavirus patients.

India is the fourth worst hit country in the world with more than 354,000 infections, official figures show.

Experts say the real number of cases is likely much higher and have called for greater testing.

The Delhi government alone has warned that it could have 550,000 cases by the end of July.

But Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government has declared a nationwide lockdown imposed in late March a success and has been steadily lifting restrictions.