In a worrying development, India logged a record 4,08,323 new Covid-19 infections on Friday becoming the first country in the world to register over 4 lakh infections in a single day. India saw 4,01,993 new coronavirus infections in a span of 24 hours, the highest single-day rise so far, pushing the total tally of COVID-19 cases to 1,91,64,969, while active cases crossed the 32-lakh mark, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Saturday.
India is struggling with a second wave of the pandemic with more than 3,00,000 daily new coronavirus cases being reported in the past few days, and hospitals are reeling under a shortage of medical oxygen and beds.As many as 299,988 patients were discharged in the last 24 hours and so far 15,684,406 people have recovered from the disease, the central health ministry’s dashboard showed.
With this, the country’s recovery rate stands at 81.84%, the data also showed. The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) on Saturday said that 28,83,37,385 samples were tested up to April 30 for Covid-19. Of these, 19,45,299 samples were tested yesterday.
Ten states Maharashtra, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, Kerala, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal have contributed the highest to the national tally of active Covid-19 cases.
India reported more than 66 lakh coronavirus cases in April, making it the worst month of the pandemic, and the total number of new cases recorded during the month is equivalent to what was earlier witnessed in over six months, showing the enormity of the second wave of Covid-19.
On April 22, ICMR Director General Balram Bhargava had said, “We are in the midst of the second wave of the pandemic and we are still seeing an upsurge. We cannot comment when the numbers will come down.
” Things have gone from bad to worse in April. As per data available, the United States had recorded the previous highest daily case count of 3,07,581 COVID-19 cases on January 8 this year.The COVID-19 crisis in the country is appearing to be going out of control amid a shortage of beds, oxygen and anti-viral medicines, the Central government sought to quell the panic and came with statistics to show the severity and virulence of the virus in the second wave is almost the same as during the first one.
