India recorded a new single-day high as the country saw 4,06,383 new cases during the last 24 hours with the coronavirus taking firm grip on southern India even as Maharashtra on Wednesday logged record 920 deaths and 57,640 new cases.
Southern India is hard hit by Covid-19 surge as Karnataka showed it was fast catching up with Maharashtra, recording 50,112 new cases and 346 deaths.
In terms of the number of cases, Kerala too saw an explosion, recording 41,953 cases, but the fatalaities rate was relatively low with 58 deaths during the last 24 hours.
Both Tamil Nadu (23,310) and Andhra Pradesh (22,204 cases) saw a massive rise in the number of cases.
A day after Maharashtra recorded 891 deaths and new 51,880 new cases, the daily deaths shot up by 29, while the daily infections went up by 5,760. With 920 new deaths, the total number of deaths in the State climbed from 71,742 to 72,662.
Similarly, with 57,640 new infections, the total number of cases rose from 48,22,902 top 48,80,542.
According to Chief Minister Pinatrayi Vijayan, Kerala is in for major trouble as hospitals have run out of beds and oxygen. Speaking to reporters on Wednesday evening, Vijayan said he has written a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to help the State to get at least 500 tonnes of oxygen as the State is facing a shortage of 1,000 tonnes of it.
Kerala reported 41, 953 persons with Covid-19 during the last 12 hours, the Chief Minister said. “The day also saw 58 persons succumbing to the pandemic and the test positivity rate touching 25.69 per cent. Ernakulam district which diagnosed more than 6,000 patients during the last 12 hours has become a serious concern.
The second wave of coronavirus infection continued to ravage Uttar Pradesh with 357 deaths and 31,165 fresh cases being recorded in the past 24 hours.
However, there was some solace in 40,852 recoveries during the same period while the number of active cases came down to 2,62,474 in the State.Officials said 2,32,038 Covid tests were conducted in the State in the last 24 hours. The total tests done in the state have gone up to 4,20,32,587. Lucknow, Kanpur Nagar, Varanasi, Prayagraj, Meerut and Bareilly accounted for half of the total infections in the state. The death toll also went up and at 46, Kanpur recorded the highest single-day casualties. Lucknow recorded 38 deaths, Chandauli 24, Lakhimpur Kheri 17, Sonebhadra & Ghaziabad 13 each, Gorakhpur & Jhansi 12 each, and Gautam Buddha Nagar 10.
Lucknow continued to be the district with the highest number of fresh cases at 3,004. However, 4,878 recoveries were also reported in the last 24 hours. Among other districts, Meerut witnessed 1,732 cases, Gautam Buddha Nagar 1,703, Ghaziabad 1,373, Kanpur 1,206, Gorakhpur 1,055, Varanasi 966 and Prayagraj 437.
Meanwhile, patient care facilities provided to the Covid-19 patients inside Government Medical college hospital in Jammu have come under the scanner following increasing number of deaths of patients, including those with no comorbidities.
On Wednesday 28 patients succumbed to the virus across Jammu region and 24 across Kashmir while 4,716 fresh cases of coronavirus were detected taking the tally of active positive cases to 39,628.
Since May 1, a total number of 146 patients have succumbed to the coronavirus across Jammu region and 82 in Kashmir while 6,656 patients tested positive across Jammu division and 13845 across Kashmir division.
According to the media bulletin, “Majority of these deaths have been reported in GMC Jammu”.
Several caretakers on Wednesday, while waiting outside the mortuary of the hospital complex leveled serious allegations against the poor patient care facilities provided to the patients.