India records less than 200,000 COVID cases a day, the lowest in the past six weeks

Since the beginning of the pandemic, over 300,000 people have died due to COVID19. Almost 50% of these deaths have happened in the second wave in the past seven weeks.

For the first time since mid-April last month, India has recorded less than 200,000 fresh coronavirus infections in the past 24 hours. There is a drop in the death toll too, with 3,260 fatalities reported yesterday.

Yesterday, the country reported 195,994 new infections, the lowest daily count since April 13, when 185,295 cases were recorded.

Meanwhile, six days back, on May 18, the country had reported 267,334 daily cases and the highest ever daily death toll of 4,529.

Yesterday, the highest daily spike was reported in Tamil Nadu with 34,867 fresh COVID cases, followed by Karnataka (25,311), Maharashtra (22,122), West Bengal (17,833) and Kerala (17,821). Uttar Pradesh, the country’s most populous state has recorded only 3,894 new cases. Only 1,550 new infections were reported in the national capital, Delhi.

The active cases in the country have dropped below 2.6 million. Just two weeks back, on May 10, India had 3.74 million active cases.

However, the total death toll in the entire pandemic crossed the 300,000 threshold yesterday. Over 140,000 deaths have been reported in the second wave of COVID19 in the seven weeks after March 2021. This is nearly 50 per cent of the deaths reported since March this year.

During the media briefing yesterday, the joint secretary of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Lav Agarwal, informed that there is a steady decline in daily new COVID-19 cases across the country since the last 17 days. 

There is a decrease in high cases reported by districts in the country. As per the health ministry, 531 districts reported more than 100 daily cases between April 28 and May 21. However, only 431 districts reported more than 100 daily cases between May 15 and May 21.

Also Read: No indication that children will be severely affected in the COVID19 third wave: Randeep Guleria, AIIMS director

Meanwhile, yesterday the central government allowed walk-in registration for vaccination for the 18-44 age group. For now, it is only open at government-run COVID vaccination centres.

“In case of sessions exclusively organized with online slots, towards the end of the day, some doses may still be left unutilized in case the online appointee beneficiaries do not turn up on the day of vaccination due to any reason. In such cases, on-site registration of a few beneficiaries may be necessary to minimize the vaccine wastage,” the ministry stated in a press release.

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