India logs new high of 4,205 COVID-19 deaths, 348,421 fresh cases of infection
New Delhi, May 12, 2021
India today logged a new high of 4,205 COVID-19 deaths and as many as 348,421 fresh cases of infection in the last 24 hours as the Central and State Governments continued to battle the pandemic amid signs that the spread of the coronavirus was slowing down in some states.
But the overall numbers remained at high levels and were thus a cause of concern across several parts of the country.
At 4,205, the number of deaths in the last 24 hours was the highest since the first cases of COVID-19 were reported in India in late January 2020. The previous high was 4,187 reported on May 8.
The number of new cases of infection, at 348,421 was higher than the 329,942 registered yesterday. The highest number of new cases in a 24-hour period, 414,188, was reported on May 7.
The number of deaths has crossed the 4,000-mark again today after remaining below that level for two days.
The number of new cases had crossed the 400,000-mark for four days in a row before falling below that level on May 10.
More and more states have imposed or extended lockdowns or similar restrictions in a bid to contain the spread of the virus.
There has been improvement in the supply of medical oxygen in many places. 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, 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.
This is the 15th consecutive day that the country has reported more than 3,000 deaths in a single day. It is also the 21st day in a row that the country has registered more than 3 lakh new cases of infection.
Of the 348,421 fresh cases of infection registered in India in the last 24 hours, Maharashtra, by far the worst-hit state, accounted for 40,956, higher than the 37,236 posted yesterday.
The number of deaths in the state also rose sharply to 793 from 549 recorded yesterday.
Mumbai, the state capital and the financial hub of the country, continued to show a downtrend with the number of going down to 1,717 from 1,782 yesterday and the number of deaths in the last 24 hours dipping to 51 from 74 yesterday.
Among the other districts in the state, Nashik led with 93 deaths, while 65 succumbed in Nagpur, 61 in Beed, 51 in Mumbai, 43 in Pune, 41 in Nanded, 38 in Latur, 37 in Thane and 30 in Solapur.
In Delhi, the number of new infections in the last 24 hours dropped again slightly to 12,481 from 12,651 reported yesterday. However, the number of deaths rose to 347 from 319 yesterday.
Karnataka recorded 39,510 new cases of infection and 480 deaths in the last 24 hours as compared to 39,305 new cases and 596 deaths registered yesterday.
State capital Bengaluru reported 15,879 fresh cases and 259 deaths during this period.
Among the other states, Kerala added 37,290 cases, Tamil Nadu 29,272, Uttar Pradesh 20,445, Andhra Pradesh 20,345, West Bengal 20,136, Rajasthan 16,080 and Haryana 11,637.
Uttar Pradesh reported 301 deaths in the last 24 hours, followed by 298 in Tamil Nadu, 214 in Punjab, 199 in Chhattisgarh, 169 in Rajasthan, 144 in Haryana
With the latest numbers put out this morning by the Union Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, the death toll in India so far has crossed the 250,000-mark and reached 254,197 while the total number of cases has risen past 23 million to 23,340,938.
The number of those who have recovered from COVID-19 has gone up to 19,382,642, up 355,338 from yestereday. The recovery rate has improved to 83.04% from 82.75% yesterday.
The number of active cases has decreased by 11,122 to 3,704,099 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 135,926 in recent months but has been falling for the last two days.
The world has reported a total of 159.338 million cases of COVID-19 so far while the global death toll has climbed past 3.313 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 (32.778 million) and ahead of Brazil (15.282 million).
In terms of the number of deaths, the country now ranks third after the US (582,834) and Brazil (425,540).
NNN
