Covid: India records more than 200,000 daily cases for first time during pandemic
Report by ITV News reporter Sanjay Jha
India has recorded more than 200,000 coronavirus cases in a single day for the first time since the pandemic began.
The country has seen a huge spike in infections in the past few weeks, leading to the government withholding doses of Covid vaccines produced in the country as it attempts to curb a rising second wave.
The confirmed 200,739 cases on Thursday means India has recorded more than 14 million infections during the pandemic. More than 1,000 people died with Covid for the second day in a row, making India the worst hit country since April 2.
Provincial governments have imposed restrictions on people's movement during the night to stop the spread of the coronavirus.
“Ten States including Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat and Rajasthan have shown a rise in the COVID daily new cases.
"82.04% of the new cases are reported from these 10 states,” the Indian health ministry said in a statement on Wednesday.
A weekend curfew has also been announced in the capital of New Delhi.
India had stemmed the spread of coronavirus but its healthcare system is struggling to deal with the large number of infections, with reports of shortages in critical-care beds, oxygen, delays in testing and hospitals turning away critically ill patients pouring in from across the country.
People are struggling to get bed. Even turnaround time for Covid test results in some states has gone up to more than 48 hours because of the huge backlog and labs have stopped home collections.
Covid cases are rising exponentially with a highly infectious strain stalking the Indian capital New Delhi. Amid rising cases and shortage of beds and critical care facilities, the Delhi’s local government issued orders to attach hotels and banquet halls with private and government hospitals, to add more beds for Covid patients.
Hospitals in Delhi say they are getting infants as young as eight months old with severe symptoms of the disease, including persistent fever and pneumonia.
As the second wave of Covid-19 intensifies, India’s federal government has urged citizens, who eligible to take the coronavirus vaccine, to get shot as soon as possible.
Despite this, hundreds of thousands of devout Hindus gathered to bathe in the Ganges river in Uttarakhand state on Wednesday, the third major bathing day of the weeks-long Kumbh Mela festival.
After this large gathering more than 1,000 cases have been reported from the site of this religious gathering, according to government data.
Health experts are warning that these potential “super spreader events" may ring alarm bells for the government when the health infrastructure in big cities are stretched and pilgrims would be spreading to rural areas which has almost negligent healthcare infrastructure.
India in grip of second wave as sluggish vaccination programme slows progress
Covid: Dalai Lama gets coronavirus vaccine and urges others to come forward too
Listen to our latest coronavirus podcast here: