India’s daily Covid-19 count neared the 2-lakh mark on Wednesday as the situation turned alarming in several States and reports of unavailability of hospital beds, ventilators, and oxygen cylinders poured in from all over the country.
India recorded 1,99,338 cases and 1,036 deaths in 24 hours till post midnight on Thursday. The country caseload spiked despite a certain degree of containment achieved in Maharashtra where the daily surge has remained confined in the range of 55,000 to 60,000. During the last 24 hours, Maharashtra recorded 58,952 fresh cases and 278 new deaths.
On a day when the Maharashtra Government began to enforce stringent restrictions, including a ban on the movement of people in public places without a valid reason, prohibitory orders under Section 144 of CrPC and night curfew for 15 days, the number of infections dropped from Tuesday’s tally of 60,212 to 58,952, while deaths came down from 281 to 278 in various parts of the State.
With 58,952 fresh cases, the total infections climbed from 35,19,208 to 35,78,160. Similarly, with 258 new deaths, the total Covid-19 toll rose from 58,526 to 58,804.
However, Covid-19 cases continued to hit new peaks on daily basis in States such as Uttar Pradesh (20, 510 new cases), Delhi (17,282), Karnataka (11,265), Chhattisgarh (12,603) and Madhya Pradesh (9,720), Gujarat (7,410) among others. In terms of death, Maharashtra accounted for 278, Delhi 104, Chhattisgarh (90), UP 67, Karnataka 38, and Gujarat 73.
Uttar Pradesh recorded 20,510 cases in the last 24 hours. Officials claim that 68 people died of Covid-19 during this period.
Additional Chief Secretary (Health) Amit Mohan Prasad said 20,510 new cases of Covid were reported in the State during the past 24 hours.
However, he said, 4,517 Covid-19 patients had recovered and at present 1,11,835 active cases were undergoing treatment.
So far 9,376 people had died of Covid-19 in the State, including 68 who succumbed to the deadly virus in the last 24 hours, he said.
The pace of infection in the State is increasing at an exponential rate. There were only 1,700 active cases in the first week of March. But after the surge, which began from the second week of March, in one month the number of active cases reached 95,980 on April 14.
About 68,000 new positive cases have been confirmed in just one week.
UP is just behind Maharashtra in number of Covid-19 patients. While Maharashtra has the maximum number 5.64 lakh active cases, UP now has 1,11,835 active cases. Karnataka is at number three and Kerala at number four. Earlier, Maharashtra was followed by Kerala, Punjab, Delhi and Rajasthan.
The surge in Covid-19 infection has made people jittery and the paucity of medicines has made them nervous. The government probably realised this, therefore a consignment of 25,000 doses of Remdesivir injection arrived in Uttar Pradesh on Wednesday.
A Government spokesman said Yogi had sent a Government aircraft to Ahmedabad to bring the life-saving injection. Meanwhile, Madhya Pradesh recorded 9,720 fresh cases on Wednesday, the biggest single-day spike so far, pushing the infection count to 3,63,352, said health department officials.
The death count rose to 4,312 with 51 more deaths, also the highest one-day count so far, reported during the past 24 hours, they said.
In this month so far, the State has recorded 67,841 new cases and 326 fatalities. Karnataka reported over 11,000 new Covid-19 cases, once again the highest single-day tally yet. With 11,265 Covid-19 cases, Karnataka's overall virus tally has reached 10,94,912, according to the daily health bulletin. Of these, Bengaluru reported 8,155 new cases.
Gujarat has reported 7,410 new Covid-19 cases which is the highest-ever that has been reported in the State in a day. The deaths caused by the coronavirus has also reached a new peak with 73 recorded in 24 hrs.