India on Wednesday crossed the grim milestone of more than 2 lakh deaths caused by the COVID-19. With 3,306 new deaths reported on Tuesday, April 27, India’s COVID-19 death tally has reached 2,01,186. Only countries like the US (5,87,384), Brazil (3,95,324), Mexico (2,15.547) have recorded a higher death toll than India.
It was also the first time since the beginning of the pandemic when India’s daily death surpassed the 3,000-mark on Tuesday. India also crossed Brazil’s average number of new deaths to become the country with the most daily casualties.
The high death toll comes at a time when hospitals are overflowing with sick and are reporting a shortage of oxygen and beds across the country. One person is dying of COVID every four minutes in one of the hardest-hit cities, New Delhi, reported Reuters.
Among the worst affected states in the country, Maharashtra reported 66,358 infections on April 27, followed by Uttar Pradesh (32,993), Kerala (32,819), Karnataka (31, 830). Maharashtra also recorded 895 new casualties, followed by Delhi (381) and Uttar Pradesh (265).
The positivity rate has also increased across the country from 4.2 per cent to 18.4 per cent over the past month. Chhattisgarh and Delhi have reached a nearly 30 per cent positivity rate.
The World Health Organization said Tuesday that a variant of COVID-19 feared to be contributing to a surge in coronavirus cases in India has been found in over a dozen countries. The UN health agency said the B.1.617 variant of COVID-19 first found in India had as of Tuesday been detected in over 1,200 sequences uploaded to the GISAID open-access database "from at least 17 countries".
On the vaccination front, As many as 33.59 lakh vaccine doses were administered in the country in 24 hours. The total doses of the COVID-19 vaccine administered stand at over 14,78,27,367 crore.
On Tuesday, India reported 3,60,960 new COVID-19 cases and 2,61,162 recoveries, taking the total active cases to 29,78,709.
The second wave of COVID-19 in India has been very aggressive and fast-spreading. Several states have imposed curfews and strict restrictions amid shortages of hospital beds, oxygen and medicines.