India records highest COVID deaths of 4,204 in 24-hrs; 3.48L new infections

India’s COVID fatality toll touched a deadly high of 4,205 in the last 24 hours, taking the total death toll to 2,54,197, while 3,48,421 new coronavirus infections were reported on Wednesday.

The country’s tally of COVID-19 cases now stands at 2,33,40,938.

The active cases have reduced to 37,04,099 comprising 15.87 per cent of the total infections, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate has improved to 83.04 per cent, health ministry data said.

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The number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 1,93,82,642 while the case fatality rate was recorded at 1.09 per cent, the data stated.

The Centre on Tuesday said nearly 90 per cent of the country is witnessing a high positivity rate due to the upsurge in cases in the second wave. The government said that 640 districts of the 734 are above the national threshold level of 5 per cent positivity rate.

The high death rate comes at a time when despite pitch by experts to step up vaccination, states are facing difficulties in arranging doses. Several states including Odisha, Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra have chosen to float global tenders to procure COVID-19 vaccines while those like Delhi are still considering it.

The World Health Organisation has said that the B.1.617 virus, also known as “a variant of concern” which is being linked to the spurt in cases in India, has been found in 44 countries.

India’s COVID-19 tally had crossed the 20-lakh mark on August 7, 30 lakh on August 23, 40 lakh on September 5 and 50 lakh on September 16. It went past 60 lakh on September 28, 70 lakh on October 11, crossed 80 lakh on October 29, 90 lakh on November 20 and surpassed the one-crore mark on December 19. India crossed the grim milestone of 2 crore on May 4.

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According to the ICMR, 30,75,83,991 samples have been tested up to May 11 with 19,83,804 samples being tested on Tuesday.

(With inputs from agencies)