Registering its highest single-day spike in COVID-19 cases , India witnessed a total of 295,000 new cases and 2,023 deaths in the last 24 hours till 9 am on April 21.
The total number of active coronavirus infections is now 15,616,130 and 182,553 Indians have died due to the virus in the ongoing pandemic. As of now, there are 2,157,538 active cases in the country which is facing a massive second wave.
Situation is grim in the national capital of Delhi which added 28,395 new coronavirus cases and 277 deaths on April 20. This is Delhi’s highest single-day increase in the COVID19 cases ever since the pandemic started last year.
Delhi is also witnessing a high positivity rate of COVID19 infections. Yesterday, it recorded a positivity rate of 32.82 per cent, which means that almost every third person being tested for coronavirus in the national capital is COVID positive.
Apart from a high infection load and positivity rate, hospitals in Delhi have also been facing an acute oxygen shortage. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has been raising a distress alarm, urging the Centre to provide oxygen supplies to the national capital. Last evening, the chief minister made an SOS appeal to the central government.
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Kejriwal had stated on April 20 that the national capital is about to exhaust its last reserves of medical oxygen and added that some hospitals were functioning with just a few hours worth of oxygen left.
“Serious oxygen crisis persists in Delhi. I again urge the Centre to urgently provide oxygen to Delhi. Some hospitals are left with just a few hours of oxygen,” Kejriwal had tweeted.
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The tankers carrying oxygen arrived last night (April 20) at some of Delhi’s major government hospitals. The hospitals that were supplied with oxygen include Sir Ganga Ram Hospital and Guru Teg Bahadur (GTB) Hospital.
Also, it is reported that Delhi’s biggest COVID19 hospital, the Lok Nayak Jayaprakash Narayan Hospital, received 10 tonnes of medical oxygen supplies last night. The hospital administration told NDTV that these stocks would be sufficient for now.
