India logs 4,106 more COVID-19 deaths, new cases dip below 300,000

New Delhi, May 17, 2021

India today logged 4,106 more deaths due to COVID-19 but the number of new cases in the last 24 hours dipped to below 300,000 for the first time after April 21 at 281,386 as there appeared to be a deceleration in the spread of the coronavirus pandemic in the country.

At 4,106, the number of deaths in the last 24 hours is higher than the 4077 reported yesterday.

The number of new cases, at 281,386, in the last 24 hours is less than the 311,170 recorded yesterday.

The number of daily deaths has been going up for the last two days, reversing a four-day downtrend. The number of new cases has gone down for the fourth consecutive day today.

The highest number of deaths in a 24-hour period, at 4,205, was posted on May 12.

This is the eighth consecutive day that the number of new cases has remained below the 400,000-mark. The highest number of new cases in a 24-hour period, 414,188, was reported on May 7.

But, while the daily numbers are falling in several states, they are still at high levels, which means that the lockdowns and other restrictions put in place in various states would continue for some more time. In fact, more and more states are extending the restrictions in place.

There is also serious concern about the spread of the pandemic to peri-urban, rural and tribal areas in several states.

There has been improvement in the supply of medical oxygen in many places and the Central and State governments as well as other agencies continued to take measures to address various issues like shortages of hospital beds, medicines and so on.

Aid from abroad as well as from the corporate sector and NGOs, in the form of liquid medical oxygen, oxygen concentrators, ventilators, medicines and equipment, has also started to flow in and is making a difference.

Adding to the difficulties of the people is the shortage of vaccines in many places, leading to long queues at several vaccination centres.

Of the 281,386 fresh cases of infection recorded in India in the last 24 hours, Maharashtra, by far the worst-hit state, accounted for 34,389, slightly lower than the 34,848 posted yesterday.

The state also accounted for 974 of the 4,106 deaths reported in the country in the last 24 hours, marginally higher than the 960 registered yesterday.

Mumbai, the state capital and the financial hub of the country, registered 1,535 new cases of infection, slightly higher than the 1,450 recorded yesterday. The city also recorded 60 deaths in the last 24 hours, slightly lower than the 62 logged yesterday.

Among the other districts in Maharashtra, there were 104 deaths in Nagpur, 98 in Kolhapur, 85 in Solapur, 62 in Pune, 55 in Chandrapur, 45 in Aurangabad, 44 in Nashik, 43 in Nanded, 38 in Amravati, 36 in Beed, 35 in Thane, 34 in Sangli, 31 in Jalgaon and 30 in Raigad.

In national capital Delhi, the number of new infections went up slightly to 6,456 from 6,430 yesterday. The number of deaths, however, came down to 262 from 337 yesterday.

Karnataka, among the most-affected states, registered 31,531 new cases of infection in the last 24 hours, markedly lower than the 41,664 posted yesterday. The state logged 403 deaths in this period, higher than the 349 recorded yesterday.

State capital Bengaluru reported 8,344 new cases of infection and 143 deaths in the last 24 hours as compared to 13,402 cases and 95 deaths yesterday.

Kerala, where there has been an uptrend in recent days, reported much lower numbers for the last 24 hours with 89 deaths and 29,704 new cases of infection as compared to 96 deaths and 32,680 new cases registered yesterday.

With the latest numbers put out this morning by the Union Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, the death toll in India so far has increased to 274,390 while the total number of cases so far, since the first coronavirus cases were reported in India in late January 2020, has climbed to 24,965,463.

The number of those who have recovered from COVID-19 has risen past 21 million to 21,174,076, up 378,741 from yesterday. The recovery rate has improved to 84.81% from 84.24% yesterday.

The number of active cases fell by 101,461 to 3,516,997 today. The number of active cases had touched 3,745,237 on May 10, the highest since the pandemic began in India. The active caseload had been steadily rising after February 12 this year, when it had touched its lowest mark of 135,26 in recent months. Since May 11, there has been a downtrend.

The world has reported a total of 163.072 million cases of COVID-19 so far while the global death toll has climbed past 3.379 million as of this morning, according to data compiled by the Johns Hopkins University in the United States, which is tracking the pandemic.

India ranks second in the world in terms of the total number of infections so far, behind the United States (32.940 million) and ahead of Brazil (15.627 million).

In terms of the number of deaths, the country now ranks third after the US (585,970) and Brazil (435,751).

NNN