In another grim milestone, India on Wednesday recorded its highest single-day Covid-19 death toll with more than 4,200 deaths in the last 24 hours. The count of daily cases continued to stay above the 3-lakh mark.

Deaths from Covid-19 swelled by 4,205 pushing India's total death tally to 2,54,197, as per data updated on the Union health ministry website at 8:00 am.

The previous high was 4,187 reported on May 7. The country has recorded nearly 50,000 deaths in the last 14 days at a daily average of more than 3,528.

With 3,48,421 new cases reported in 24 hours, India's total caseload now stands at 2,33,40,938. Going by the trend of new Covid-19 cases, the country may have reached, or is close to reaching, the peak of the devastating second wave of the pandemic.

The active cases have reduced to 37,04,099 comprising 15.87 per cent of the total infections, while the national Covid-19 recovery rate has improved to 83.04 per cent, the data updated at 8 am showed.

The number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 1,93,82,642 while the case fatality rate was recorded at 1.09 per cent.

On a brighter note, 18 states and Union territories have shown continued plateauing or decrease in daily new Covid-19 cases. Among these states are Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Bihar, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Telangana.

The overall global Covid-19 caseload has topped 159.3 million, while the deaths have surged to more than 3.31 million, according to Johns Hopkins University.

The United States continues to be the worst-hit country with the world's highest number of cases and deaths at 32,773,387 and 582,791, respectively. In terms of infections, India follows in second place.

Source: Times of India 

BDST: 1227 HRS, May 12, 2021
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