India’s Covid cases and passings hit another record with 3.49 lakh new cases, taking the caseload to 1.69 crore; 2,767 people died in the last 24 hours. Hospitals in the country are overwhelmed; SOS messages have flooded social media.
This is the fourth day that India has recorded more than 3 lakh Covid cases and more than 2,000 passings. The nation has been recording more than 2 lakh cases everyday since April 15.
Many top hospitals in Delhi, in the last 48 hours, have sent out SOS messages over medical oxygen shortage. 25 people died at Jaipur Golden Hospital due to low oxygen pressure on Friday. Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Saturday wrote to all chief ministers “requesting them to provide oxygen to Delhi, if they have spare”.
PM Narendra Modi on Saturday held one more significant level meet in the midst of frantic appeals from across the nation as patients struggle to get hospital beds and other essential facilities.
The government has waived off customs duty on the import duty of vaccines and medical oxygen for a period of three months. This, the centre said, would “boost availability of these items, as well as make them cheaper”.
Karnataka and Bengal recorded the most highest single day surge in cases just now. Karnataka recorded almost 30,000 COVID-19 cases, and state capital Bengaluru also reported its greatest at any point single-day Covid infections with more than 17,000 new cases.
Bengal logged 14,281 new Covid cases – the most in a day – and almost double the 7,713 reported only a week ago. Politicians have been criticised for holding rallies in the state amid a nationwide surge in Covid cases.
While Maharashtra logged more than 67,000 new cases, Mumbai saw a drop in cases for the first time in six days with 5,888 new infections. This is the lowest daily addition to its caseload since March 31, when 5,394 new cases were detected, and it is the first time since April 12 that the number of new daily cases is below the 7,000-mark.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Saturday said Serum Institute CEO Adar Poonawalla has guaranteed of greatest help to “ensure maximum vaccination at the earliest in the state”. A strict lockdown was announced in Maharashtra, the worst-hit state, to break the chain of transmission.
Several nations have expressed support as Covid cases soar in India. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said that he was looking at what he could do to help India, where the coronavirus pandemic is entering a deadly new phase with which its health services are struggling to cope.
Worldwide, the number of Covid cases has surged to 14.5 crore. More than 30 lakh people have died and 1 billion doses of vaccines have been administered so far.
