India sees over 300,000 Covid-19 cases for fourth straight day

The Union ministry of health and family welfare (MoHFW) said on Sunday morning that 349,691 fresh infections were detected across the country in the last 24 hours, taking the infection tally to 16,960,172, including a death toll of 192,311.

India’s new daily cases of the coronavirus disease (covid-19) crossed 300,000 for the fourth straight day as the Union ministry of health and family welfare (MoHFW) said on Sunday morning that 349,691 fresh infections were detected across the country in the last 24 hours, taking the infection tally to 16,960,172.

Swab tests for Covid-19 being conducted at city railway station in Bengaluru (ANI Photo).

This was yet another day when India’s Covid-19 tally rose by record cases, as well as another day of the highest single day rise in infections globally since the beginning of the pandemic. India recorded more than 300,000 cases for the first time on April 22, with 314,835 infections being the-then highest in a single day anywhere in the world.

in 24 hours

More than 2,000 people succumbed to the viral disease yet again, as the related death toll rose by a record 2,767 fatalities and currently stands at 192,311 or 1.13% of the infection tally, the health ministry’s dashboard showed on Sunday morning. The number of recovered patients, meanwhile, increased to 14,085,110 or 83.05% of total cases as 217,113 patients were discharged in the last 24 hours, the dashboard showed. Active cases, meanwhile, are at more than 2.6 million, rising by 129,811 infections to 2,682,751 or 15.82% of the national caseload.

The number of samples tested for Covid-19 in the last 24 hours is 1,719,588, the government-run Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) said. The ICMR further said that with this, 277,918,810 samples have been tested for the infection up to April 24.

On the country’s vaccination drive against the pandemic, the health ministry’s dashboard showed more than 2.5 million doses were administered in the last 24 hours, taking the total number of doses administered thus far to 140,916,417. From May 1, every citizen of the age of 18 and above will be eligible for a vaccine shot, in what will be the third phase of the vaccination drive, as announced by the Union government on April 19 amid a rapid and alarming rise in daily cases.

With hospitals across the country also complaining of a shortage of medical oxygen, which has forced several hospitals to discharge patients, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address the nation through his radio programme Mann Ki Baat at 11am. The administration of US President Joe Biden, which has come under scrutiny for banning the supply of raw material for Covid-19 vaccine, too, expressed concern at the situation in India, with secretary of state Antony Blinken tweeting, “We’re working closely with our partners in the Indian government, and will deploy additional support to the people of India and India’s health care heroes.”

India’s Covid-19 tally is the second-highest in the world, between those of the United States and Brazil, respectively. Its death toll is the fourth-highest after that of the United States, Brazil and Mexico.