The Delhi government has imposed a complete lockdown for six days, starting from Monday night, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal announced, amid a record rise in coronavirus cases that has severely strained the city’s resources and health infrastructure.
The Delhi government’s move came even as India reported 2,73,810 coronavirus disease cases, the highest single-day spike so far since the pandemic broke out. With this, India’s Covid tally has shot up to 15,061,919 cases. Vaccination drive will be extended to everyone above 18 in the next stage beginning 1 May, the government announced after Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a series of meetings. All adults will be vaccinated in “a liberalised and accelerated phase 3 strategy of Covid-19 vaccination”.
India also reported the highest-ever single-day spike in Covid-related deaths with 1,625 fatalities. The death toll from the deadly infection stands at 178,793. Maharashtra and Delhi recorded their biggest ever single-day surge in Covid-19 cases. The five most affected states by total cases are Maharashtra, Kerala, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, and Andhra Pradesh.
A day after logging the highest 68,631 Covid-19 cases, Maharashtra witnessed a dip in its daily count by recording 58,924 fresh infections and 351 deaths. The overall case tally in Maharashtra now stands at 38,98,262, while the toll is 60,824. The state is now left with 6,76,520 active cases.
Uttarakhand recorded 2,160 fresh cases of Covid-19, taking the total case tally in the state to 1,26,193. With 24 deaths registered in the last 24 hours, the death toll in the state mounted to 1,892.
As many as 27 people succumbed to Covid-19 in Andhra Pradesh, even as the state registered 5,963 fresh cases. After 1.57 crore tests, the gross Covid-19 positives in the state rose to 9.68 lakh. The state now has 48,053 active cases.
Kerala registered 13,644 fresh Covid-19 cases, taking active cases past the one lakh mark, while 21 more fatalities took the toll to almost 5,000. As many as 4,305 people have been cured, taking the total recoveries to 11,44,791 while the total infection caseload mounted to 12,53,068.
Karnataka reported 15,785 new coronavirus cases, 7,098 discharges and 146 deaths in last 24 hours. The case tally stands at 11,76,850 with total death toll reaching at 13,497.
West Bengal reported the highest single-day spike of 8,426 new Covid-19 cases, while 38 people died of the infection in the state. The fresh cases took the tally to over 6.68 lakh. So far, 10,606 people have died of the disease in the state. Twelve of the latest deaths happened in Kolkata, which reported record 2,211 new cases. In the last 24 hours, 4,608 recoveries were registered across the state.
Jammu and Kashmir recorded 1,516 fresh Covid-19 cases, including 231 travellers, pushing the tally to 1,48,208, while six deaths in the past 24 hours raised the toll to 2,063. Of the fresh cases, 768 were from the Jammu division and 748 from the Kashmir division.
