New Delhi- India reported 2,73,810 fresh new Covid-19 cases, making it the fifth straight day that India has recorded more than 2 lakh Covid cases in 24 hours. The highest one-day surge took the total tally of caseload to 1.5 crore mark. There have been 1,619 cases of fatalities reported in the last 24 hours in a new record high taking the total caseload past the 1.5 crore mark. This is the sixth consecutive day that India reported over a thousand daily deaths.
Keeping in the mind the rampant cases of the novel coronavirus all over the country, the government on Sunday said it has increased the supply to 12 "high-burden states" midst reports of acute shortages for patients to have easy access to hospital beds and medical oxygen.
The centre on Sunday also said that it would divert the oxygen supply meant for the industries towards the healthcare sectors. Railways are also preparing to run "Oxygen Express Trains" via green corridors to join the fight against this deadly infection.
The states of Maharashtra, Delhi, and Karnataka saw the highest one-day spike in the last 24 hours. Maharashtra saw the addition of 69,631 fresh new cases of COVID-19, taking the state's overall tally to 38,39,338 cases. Maharashtra also witnessed over 500 coronavirus-induced deaths, the highest seen in the last seven months. The national capital recorded 25,462 new cases while Karnataka saw a spike of 19,067 cases. Bengaluru also witnessed the highest single-day spike of 12,793 cases.
The states of Bihar, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, and Manipur had announced new restrictions to keep the spread of the novel coronavirus at bay. Bihar imposed a 9 PM to 5 AM night curfew with malls, schools, cinema halls, and places of worship to be shut till May 15. Tamil Nadu has announced a night curfew between 10 pm and 4 am from Tuesday with beaches, parks being temporarily shut and inter-state movement of buses restricted. Rajasthan will witness several restrictions in place till May 3 as a part of "anushasan pakhwada" or "self-discipline fortnight" while Manipur has imposed a 7 pm- 5 am night curfew banning large crowd gatherings in the state.
Meanwhile, Assam's COVID-19 tally mounted to 2,24,455 on April 18 as 639 more people tested positive for the infection, while six fresh fatalities pushed the death toll to 1,135, the National Health Mission (NHM) said. The six deaths were reported from Barpeta, Cachar, Dhemaji, Kamrup Metropolitan, Morigaon, and Tinsukia district.
The Health Ministry announced that over 12 crore doses have been administered so far.
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