Health

India records over 4,000 daily Covid-19 deaths, 360,000 cases in 24 hours

New Delhi, May 13 (EFE).- India reported 4,120 Covid-19 deaths and 362,727 fresh cases in the last 24 hours on Thursday, while several states have announced the suspension of the vaccination program to all adults due to shortage of doses.

According to health ministry data, the Asian country has registered a total 258,317 coronavirus deaths and 23.7 cases since the start of the pandemic.

India remains the world’s most affected country by the virus in terms of caseload, behind the United States.

A total of 1.9 million RT-PCR tests were also conducted to detect the coronavirus, marking an increase from last week when an average of 1.5 million tests were conducted per day.

The recovery rate hovers around 83 percent, compared to the 97 percent during the peak of the first wave in September last year when an average 100,000 daily cases were recorded.

The western state of Maharashtra remains the most severely affected by the virus, registering a total 816 deaths and 46,781 infections in the last 24 hours, pushing the total to 87,000 deaths and 5,226,710 cases since the start of the pandemic.

The southern state of Karnataka also reported one of the highest figures of nearly 40,000 fresh infections and 516 deaths.

Moreover, the Karnataka authorities also announced a temporary suspension of its vaccination drive from Friday for all adults due to lack of sufficient doses.

In this regard, New Delhi, which has also been facing a shortage of medical oxygen, on Wednesday was informed by the vaccine manufacturer Bharat Biotech of its inability to meet its request for supplying more vaccines to the capital.

India, which sees its vaccination drive as an answer to the pandemic that has crippled its healthcare system in recent weeks, inoculated 1.8 million people in the last 24 hours.

Since the start of the vaccination campaign in January, the country has administered 177 million doses of either Oxford-AstraZeneca’s Covishield, manufactured by Serum Institute of India, or the indigenous Covaxin.

Besides the two vaccines manufactured in India, the country has also granted approval to Russia’s Sputnik V, which is expected to be made available in the market in the coming weeks.

However, it remains far from the government target of inoculating 300 million people by July, owing to a shortage of vaccines. EFE

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