India records over 2.50 lakh Covid-19 cases, 1.7k deaths

New Delhi: India reported a slight decline of 259,170 in the number of fresh coronavirus (Covid-19) cases on Tuesday, according to MoHFW.

With this, India’s Covid tally has shot up to 15,321,089 cases. India, however, reported the highest-ever single-day spike in Covid-related deaths with 1,761 fatalities.

The death toll from the deadly infection stands at 180,550. The country now has over 2 million active cases.

The Health Department stated that Maharashtra witnessed a dip in its daily Covid-19 count by recording 58,924 fresh infections; a day after reporting the highest number of 68,631 cases on Sunday. However, 351 people succumbed to the deadly virus in the last 24 hours.

Delhi recorded 240 deaths in the past 24 hours, much higher than the 161 reported a day earlier. The city saw 23,686 cases in a day. The city is facing an extreme crunch of hospital beds, especially ventilators and ICU beds.

Delhi currently has 19,499 beds reserved for Covid patients. Of these, only 3,303 are vacant. Out of the 1,439 ventilator beds, only 26 are vacant and of the 2,969 ICU beds without ventilators, only 32 are vacant.

Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, while announcing a week-long lockdown in the city, said that Delhi’s capacity to take in more patients was nearly over.

The five most affected states by total cases are Maharashtra (3,898,262), Kerala (1,253,068), Karnataka (1,176,850), Tamil Nadu (1,002,392), and Andhra Pradesh (968,000).