India's daily Covid cases double to more than 2 lakh in just 10 days

This is also the fastest rise in Covid cases in the country, with the number of daily infections doubling in just 10 days since the beginning of this month.

The ministry also reported 1,038 deaths due to Corona across the country on Tuesday, which took the cumulative toll to 1,73,123.

India has already overtaken Brazil to become the country with the second-highest number of Covid-19 cases, after the United States, which counts 31.4 million Covid-19 cases.

With over 1 lakh fresh infections per day for the ninth consecutive day, India added 13,88,515 cases in just nine days.

With the steady increase in active cases for the 36th day in a row, the caseload has increased to 10.46 per cent of the total infections, while the recovery rate has dropped to 88.31 per cent.

The number of Covid-19 infections in the country, which crossed the 2 million mark on 7 August 2020, rose to 3 million on 23 August, to 4 million on 5 September, to 5 million on 16 September, to 6 million on 28 September, to 7 million on 11 October, to 8 million on 29 October, to 9 million on 20 November and surpassed the 100 million mark on 19 December.

It has now had more than 13.5 million confirmed cases in total, which is more than the caseload in Brazil, and is now only behind the worst-hit United States.

According to the ICMR, 26,20,03,415 samples have been tested till 14 April, including 13,84,549 samples being tested on Wednesday.

The surge in cases has stretched the country’s fragile health infrastructure too far, with several states reporting shortages of intensive care (ICU) beds and oxygen cylinders.

In Maharashtra, the most-affected state, two huge complexes for patients are being set up as the state government initiated a range of curbs on movement, gatherings and commercial establishments for two weeks.

Hospitals and doctors in Maharashtra as well other regions including Gujarat and Delhi in the north reported chaotic scenes as healthcare facilities were overwhelmed with a surge in admissions of COVID-19 patients.

Beginning Wednesday night, all shops, malls and e-commerce deliveries except of essential items like food, groceries and medicine have been suspended until 1 May.

All manufacturing units except export-oriented ones and those manufacturing essential items would also be closed. Bars and restaurants have already been closed and gatherings of more than five people are banned across the state.

Delhi recorded 17,282 cases over the past 24 hours – the highest single-day figure so far – as the city was running short of ICU beds for COVID-19 patients, with only about 171 with ventilators available late on Wednesday.

With more fatalities reported, there has been a huge burden on crematoriums and burial grounds in the capital city.

Television channels also showed angry relatives of a patient who died after spending hours on a stretcher outside a Covid-19 hospital in Jharkhand state’s capital, Ranchi, where all the beds were reported to be occupied.

Similar scenes could be seen in neighbouring Bihar’s capital, Patna.

Recent regional elections and festivals including the mammoth month-long Kumbh Mela are expected to accelerate the infection rate further, with virologist Shahid Jamil calling them super-spreader events.