India’s Covid-19 wave crossed another grim milestone with the country reporting more than 4,000 deaths from the virus in a single day, even as daily cases stayed over 4 lakh for the third day running.

On Saturday, the country's total tally of Covid-19 deaths stood at 2,38,270 with 4,187 deaths recorded in a day, as per Union health ministry data updated on 8 am.

India is the third country after the US and Brazil to report more than 4,000 deaths in a day. The highest single-day toll in any country is 4,490 deaths reported in the US on January 12.

As per the health ministry, total cases of Covid-19 stand at 2,18,92,676 with 4,01,078 cases reported in a day.

Registering a steady increase, the active cases have increased to 37,23,446, comprising 17.01 per cent of the total infections, while the national Covid-19 recovery rate has dropped to 81.90 per cent, the data showed.

The number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 1,79,30, 960, while the case fatality rate was recorded at 1.09 per cent, the data stated.

India has administered as many as 16,73,46,544 Covid-19 vaccine doses across the country, as per government data.

India has recorded more cases in 82 days of the second Covid wave than in over a year prior to that. Since February 14, the country has documented 1,09,68,039 cases of the coronavirus as opposed to 1,09,16,481 cases recorded from January 30 last year till February 14 this year.

Although no single day can be pinned down as the start of the second wave in the country, February 14 is the date since when the seven-day rolling average of daily cases in India has risen uninterruptedly.

In other words, India’s Covid caseload has doubled in 82 days — a very rapid surge considering the number that has doubled is 1.1 crore. Assuming that the first wave in the country really began on April 1 last year, the second wave has already seen four times higher daily case counts than the first.

There have been more than 82,000 recorded Covid deaths in the country since February 14, more than half of all earlier fatalities. India has recorded a total of 2,38,197 Covid-related deaths so far. 

Source: Times of India 

BDST: 1300 HRS, May 8, 2021
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