India sees record surge of 273,810 Covid-19 cases as tally tops 15 million
According to the Union ministry of health and family welfare’s (MoHFW) dashboard on Monday morning, the country’s active Covid-19 caseload is at 1,929,329 while 178,769 people have succumbed to the viral disease
India witnessed yet another record rise in its daily cases of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19), as 273,810 fresh infections were reported across the country, according to the Union ministry of health and family welfare (MoHFW), taking the nationwide tally to 15,061,919. The health ministry's dashboard also showed at 8am 1619 more people succumbed to the viral disease, another daily record, taking the death toll to 178,769.
India reported more than 100,000 cases a day for the first time on April 5. Since then, barring April 6, the country's infection tally has risen daily by over 100,000 cases, topping the 200,000 mark for the first time on April 15. Daily fatalities have been more than 1,000 since April 14, which was the first time in last five months that the virus claimed so many lives in a single day.
The last 24 hours saw 128,013 more people testing positive for Covid-19, due to which active cases have mounted to 1,929,329. In the same period, 144,178 people also defeated coronavirus, taking total recoveries to 12,953,821. Recoveries, active cases and deaths contribute 86%, 12.8% and 1.18% respectively to the country's overall caseload of the disease. India's latest positive cases were from 1,356,133 samples tested on Sunday, the government-run Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) said, adding that with this, 267,849,549 samples have been tested thus far.
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Usually, the rise in cases reported every Monday from the last 24 hours is lower than the one reported a day before as testing is low due to the weekend. However, in this case, this is the country's highest single-day rise in cases since the beginning of the pandemic.
Several states like Maharashtra, Delhi, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Kerala, Karnataka etc. continued to witness record surge on Sunday. In the view of the unprecedented surge, governments have imposed weekend lockdowns, night curfews etc. in their respective states. The state of Rajasthan, for example, began a "lockdown" on Monday which will be in effect till 5am on May 3. In Delhi, chief minister Arvind Kejriwal will meet lieutenant governor Anil Baijal later in the day to discuss the pandemic situation in the national capital.
Also, Indian Railways has announced a special 'Oxygen Express' to transport liquid medical oxygen (LMO) after several states complained of a shortage.
