Categories: International

COVID-19: India Records 4000 Deaths In 24 Hours

  • A lack of oxygen and critical care beds is being blamed for the dramatic rise in the death rate

India recorded more than 4,000 coronavirus deaths in a day for the first time and more states imposed lockdowns Saturday in a desperate bid to halt the devastating new surge.

The 4,187 new deaths took India’s overall toll to 238,270 since the pandemic started. It added another 401,078 new cases in 24 hours taking its caseload to nearly 21.9 million — second only to the United States.

Read also: COVID-19: UK Eases Foreign Travel Restrictions

Experts, who have expressed doubts about the official death toll, say the new wave may not hit a peak until the end of May and there have been mounting calls for tough nationwide measures.

Rahul Gandhi, leader of the opposition Congress party, called on Prime Minister Narendra Modi to order a national lockdown or the spread could be “devastating” for India and other countries.

Britain has already declared a new variant found in India to be of “concern”.

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The government, stung by criticism of its handling of the new crisis, has largely left individual state administrations to handle pandemic clampdowns.

While major cities such as New Delhi and Mumbai have been boosted by extra supplies of oxygen — much of it from abroad — and new hospital beds opened up, the southern states of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala have all ordered lockdowns to counter an explosion in cases.

Yinka Akanbi

Yinka is an aesthete and a cosmopolite.

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