India's COVID-19 Cases Surge... 400,000 New Infections in One Day

New Delhi, Bengaluru, and others see surge... New daily deaths remain in 3,000s for 4 consecutive days

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Onyu Lim] The daily new COVID-19 cases in India have surged past 400,000 for the first time.

According to the Indian Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on the 1st, the total number of daily new COVID-19 cases (the sum of each state's counts over approximately 24 hours from the previous day) was recorded at 401,993 as of that morning.

This is the first time since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic that a single country has reported over 400,000 new daily cases.

India's new cases, which had slowed earlier this year, have been rapidly increasing since March, and on the 22nd of last month, India surpassed the previous world record for daily new cases held by the United States at 307,516 (excluding India, based on Worldometer statistics).

Considering that India's daily new cases had dropped to 9,121 on February 16th, the number has increased more than 44 times over the past two and a half months.

The cumulative number of confirmed cases has risen to 19,164,969, making India the second highest in the world after the United States (33,103,974).

The ratio of new cases to tests conducted exceeds 20%. Recently, 1.7 to 1.9 million tests have been conducted daily across India.

Deaths are also exceeding 3,000 daily.

On this day, the number of new deaths was recorded at 3,523. For four consecutive days recently, deaths have surpassed 3,000 daily, marking the highest death toll worldwide. The cumulative death toll stands at 211,853.

Experts, citing hospital and crematorium officials, estimate that the actual number of deaths not captured in official statistics is several times higher.

Looking at cities, the southern IT hub city of Bengaluru, which has recently emerged as a hotspot, recorded 26,756 new cases, breaking its previous highest record.

In the capital New Delhi, 27,047 new infections were reported. Among states, Maharashtra in the west, with a population of 120 million, reported the highest number of new cases at 62,919.

With the surge in patients, hospitals across India are facing increasingly severe shortages of beds and medical oxygen.

The rise in deaths has placed a serious burden on crematoriums, and there is also a shortage of cemetery space.

Considering that vaccinations are underway recently, unlike last year, the explosive increase in cases in India is quite unusual.

Experts point to 'neglect of preventive measures' as the biggest cause of this situation.

In fact, during recent events such as the 'Festival of Colors' Holi and the Hindu festival Kumbh Mela, large crowds gathered without masks, enjoying the festivities, and until just a few days ago, massive crowds flocked daily to various regional election campaign rallies.

Indian authorities are hopeful that lockdown measures introduced by several local governments and vaccination efforts will curb the spread.

However, vaccination progress remains slow due to vaccine and medical infrastructure shortages.

As of this day, approximately 155 million vaccine doses have been administered in India. The number of people fully vaccinated with two doses is about 27.9 million, which is only 2.0% of the 1.38 billion population.

Accordingly, Indian authorities expanded the eligible age for vaccination from 45 years and older to 18 years and older starting today.

However, local media report that most states are unable to immediately implement the expanded vaccination eligibility due to vaccine shortages.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.