India records 400,000 COVID-19 cases in just 24 hours, breaking grim global record

After a horror week of rising coronavirus infections and deaths, India has become the first country to reach a devastating new record.

After 10 consecutive days of more than 300,000 cases every 24 hours, India has reached a devastating new record amid its second COVID-19 wave.

As medical supplies dwindle and the death toll continues to rise, authorities in the nation of 1.3 billion reported 401,993 new coronavirus infections on Saturday – the highest ever daily count globally since the pandemic began. It brings the nation’s total cases to 19,164,969.

Sadly, another 3523 people died from the virus in the last 24 hours, taking the total toll to 211,853, according to federal health ministry data.

“It’s impossibly bad,” Dr Sumit Ray, the medical superintendent at Delhi’s Holy Family Hospital, told the ABC.

“It’s way beyond even what the media is able to capture. Not because they don’t want to. Even doctors don’t realise how bad it is.”

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India reported more than 400,000 new cases of COVID-19 in the last 24 hours. Picture: Prakash Singh/AFP

The situation in the nation of 1.3 billion is “impossibly bad”. Picture: Sajjad Hussain/AFP

Hospital fire in COVID-19 ward kills 18 people

The total death toll following a fire at the Welfare Hospital in Bharuch, in India’s west, now stands at 18 – 16 of them coronavirus patients and two of them nurses.

It was the third hospital blaze in recent weeks, following an April 23 fire on the outskirts of Mumbai which killed 13 COVID-19 patients. It occurred just days after another fire at a different clinic left 22 people dead.

The cause of the fire on Saturday is under investigation, according to officials.

Gujarat| Fire breaks out at a COVID-19 care centre in Bharuch. Affected patients are being shifted to nearby hospitals. Details awaited. pic.twitter.com/pq88J0eRXY

— ANI (@ANI) April 30, 2021

Delhi lockdown extended by another week

Meanwhile, a lockdown in Delhi, the pandemic’s new “Ground Zero” and home to almost 19 million people, has been extended by another week due to the continued increase in cases.

It’s the second time the lockdown – intended to only last six days – has been prolonged, initially brought into place on April 19. It will now continue until at least May 10.

“The intensity with which the cases are rising made it imperative to impose this lockdown,” Delhi’s Chief Minister, Arvind Kejriwal, said in a briefing.

“This was the last resort against the rising cases in Delhi and it had become essential to do it. But the COVID surges refuses to come down.”

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America’s top infectious diseases expert, Dr Anthony Fauci, has called for India to lockdown. Picture: Amr Alfiky/POOL/AFP

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America’s top infectious diseases expert, Dr Anthony Fauci, said that the whole of India should go into a weeks-long lockdown to arrest the current surge of cases and deaths.

It’s a move that’s been resisted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government, after a nationwide shutdown during its first wave last year caused widespread human suffering and a painful economic hit.

“I think the most important thing in the immediate is to get oxygen, get supplies, get medication, get PPE, those kinds of things,” Dr Fauci told the Indian Express.

“But also, one of the immediate things to do is essentially call a shutdown of the country. And if you shut down, you don’t have to shut down for six months. You can shut down temporarily to put an end to the cycle of transmission.

“No one likes to lock down the country … But if you do it just for a few weeks, you could have a significant impact on the dynamics of the outbreak.”

– with AFP