Swept by a brutal second Covid wave, India saw a record spike in infections with 3.14 lakh new cases, the world’s biggest-ever daily surge, taking the caseload to 1.59 crore. In another grim record, 2,104 Covid deaths were recorded since yesterday.
Amid the oxygen crisis in the national capital, the Delhi High Court came down strongly on the Centre on Wednesday, saying it seemed that “human lives are not that important.. for the state”. “Beg, borrow or steal. It is a national emergency,” the judges said. The court’s observations come as several private hospitals reached out to the Delhi government regarding depleting oxygen supplies.
The Maharashtra government, meanwhile, announced fresh restrictions on office attendance, marriage ceremonies and travel. The new set of restrictions will come into effect from 8 pm on Thursday and will remain in force until 7 am on May 1. Goa also decided to impose a night curfew till April 30 to tackle the pandemic.
Meanwhile, polling is underway in West Bengal in the midst of the unprecedented Covid-19 surge. West Bengal registered its highest-ever single-day spike, with 9,819 people testing positive.
In other news, twenty-four Covid-19 patients died at a hospital run by the Nashik Municipal Corporation on Wednesday after oxygen supply was disrupted due to a leakage in the main oxygen storage tank.
In past 24 hours, more than 22 lakh vaccines were administered, taking the overall doses to 13,23,30,644.
Overall, however, the US has reported highest cases in the world. According to Johns Hopkins University tracker, US has reported 31,862,080, followed by India and Brazil. Infections in America are now on a downward trend helped in part by aggressive vaccination.