India reported over 2.94 lakh fresh Covid-19 cases on Tuesday, the second highest daily case count ever recorded by any country, even as the day's death toll crossed 2,000 for the first time since the pandemic's outbreak.
At 2,94,291, Tuesday¡¯s national case count was nearly three times higher than the peak of 98,795 daily infections recorded during the first wave on September 17. Only in one instance has any country reported a higher count of cases in a day ¡ª 3,07,570 recorded in the US on January 8 this year, as per worldometers.info.
Delhi registered the biggest spike of new 28,395 coronavirus cases and 277 deaths in the last 24 hours, according to the data released by the Delhi government's health department on Tuesday.
The COVID-19 positivity rate in the city 32.82 per cent. With the addition of fresh cases, Delhi's Covid tally reached over 9 lakhs, while the death toll mounted to 12,638. There are 85,575 active cases in Delhi.
Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday urged the Centre "with folded hands" to provide medical oxygen to Delhi and his deputy Manish Sisodia said there will be chaos in the city if the stocks are not replenished by Wednesday morning.
ICU beds in Delhi hospitals were also filling up fast amid a surge in coronavirus infections. Only 30 of them were available for coronavirus patients in government and private hospitals across the national capital at 10 pm, according to data from the city government's Delhi Corona app.
A day after cooling off, Covid-19 cases shot up again in Maharashtra on Tuesday with the state reporting its highest ever death toll with a spike in the number of active cases, health officials said.
The state's fatalities jumped from the previous high of 515 (September 15, 2020) to a new peak of 519 on Tuesday. With this, the state's overall death toll shot up to 61,343, the worst in the country.
After a record high of 68,631 new cases notched on April 18, Maharashtra on Tuesday reported 62,097 new cases, up from Monday's 58,924, taking its overall tally to 39,60,359.
Night curfew came into force in Kerala on Tuesday as the state reported the highest single day surge of over 19,000 COVID-19 cases.
In the state capital, many busy areas, including Thampanoor and the Statue area in front of the Secretariat wore a deserted look by 9 pm as vehicles were off the roads.
All private hospitals, clinics, nursing homes in Gujarat can treat COVID-19 patients till June 15, without any prior permission, Chief Minister Vijay Rupani has announced.
On Tuesday, Rupani said that no prior permission but just an intimation to Municipal Commissioner or District Collector is sufficient to treat COVID-19 patients.