India's parliament session that began this week is likely to be cut short after 30 lawmakers were found infected with the coronavirus, two senior parliament officials said, as the number of cases in the country rose to 5.3 million.

The parliament met for the first time in six months on September 14 and was to function until October 1, but its duration could be reduced by a week, according to the officials.

"Since the commencement of the session the number of positive cases have gone up so the government is thinking of cutting short the session," said one of the two officials, who are involved in the functioning of parliament proceedings.

The government has also mandated daily tests for journalists entering parliament to cover the session from Saturday.

The lower and upper house secretariats did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

India, which recorded 93,337 new infections in the last 24 hours, has been posting the highest single-day caseload in the world since early August, according to the latest data from Johns Hopkins University.

India is the world's second-worst hit country after the United States, with a total of 5.3 million recorded cases. The virus killed 1,247 people in the last 24 hours, rasing the death toll to 85,619, government data showed on Saturday.

Questions have been raised over whether herd immunity is an option for India now.

"Some epidemiologists believe it is already taking place in small areas where high infection levels have been followed by a weakening of the COVID-19 virus. Others insist that it is too soon to predict or holds little promise." the Straits Times reported.

The lawmakers who have been infected include Nitin Gadkari, the highways and small enterprises minister in Prime Minister's Narendra Modi's cabinet.

On Wednesday, the federal government ordered its states not to hoard oxygen supplies and allow free movement to cope with the rising number of cases.

(With input from Reuters)