India reports highest single-day spike in COVID-19 cases, death toll tops 200,000

AFP

India's death toll due to COVID-19 surpassed the 200,000-mark, reaching 201,187 on Wednesday, said federal health ministry.

As many as 3,293 deaths took place during the past 24 hours, which is the maximum for a daily death record so far this year.

Besides, as many as 360,960 new cases were registered since Tuesday morning, taking the total tally to 17,997,267, according to the data released by the federal health ministry.

This is the highest single-day spike in COVID-19 cases ever since the pandemic broke out in the country.

There are still a total of 2,978,709 active cases in the country, with an increase of 96,505 active cases through Tuesday, as 14,817,371 people have been cured and discharged from hospitals so far across the country.

The COVID-19 figures continue to peak in the country every day, as the federal government has ruled out imposing a complete lockdown to contain the worsening situation. While some school examinations stand canceled, others have been postponed in the wake of COVID-19 situation.

Delhi has been put under a second successive weeklong lockdown till May 3.

The number of daily active cases has been on the rise over the past few weeks. In January, the number of daily cases in the country had come down to below-10,000.

So far, over 147 million vaccination doses (147,827,367) have been administered to the people across the country since the nationwide vaccination drive was kicked off on January 16.

Over 280 million tests have been conducted so far, with 282,703,789 tests conducted till Tuesday, said the latest data issued by the Indian Council of Medical Research on Wednesday.

The national capital Delhi, which has been one of the most COVID-19 affected places in the country, witnessed over 24,149 new cases and 381 deaths through Tuesday.

So far as many as 15,009 people have died in the national capital due to COVID-19, confirmed the Delhi's health department.