India on Tuesday reported its highest single-day death count, registering 4,329 new Covid-19 fatalities, data from the Union health ministry showed. With this, the toll climbed to 2,78,719 since the pandemic first broke out in January 2020.

The country also recorded 2,63,533 new coronavirus cases, pushing the infection tally to 2,52,28,996. This is the second day in a row that India has reported less than 3 lakh singe-day cases after logging over 3 lakh infections a day for nearly a month and even crossing 4 lakh on several days in May.

Currently, there are 33,53,765 active cases and 2,15,96,512 patients have recovered from the infection. India has so far administered 18,44,53,149 coronavirus vaccine doses, giving 15,10,418 shots alone on Monday.

Ministry of Health and Family Welfare

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Daily cases have come down in states such as Maharashtra and Delhi. The national Capital on Monday recorded 4,524 new cases, the lowest one-day count since April 5. The daily toll remained high at 340. On Monday, Maharashtra recorded fewer than 30,000 cases for the first time since March 30. It logged 26,616 new infections, taking the overall case count to 54,05,068 while the toll increased by 516 to 82,486.

However, the southern states of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka have continued to report a high number of cases. Karnataka logged 38,603 new infections and 476 deaths, while Tamil Nadu recorded 33,075 cases and 335 fatalities.

Meanwhile, Delhi is facing a shortage of coronavirus vaccines. Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said there was only three days’ worth of Covid-19 vaccines left for the 18 to 44 years age group. He urged the Centre to provide more vaccines and said that the Centre had not made any more vaccine allocations in May for those under 45.

Amid the surge in cases, the Uttarakhand government on Tuesday cancelled the Char Dham Yatra and also extended the restrictions imposed in the state to break the chain of transmission of the infection till May 25.

The second wave of the coronavirus currently plaguing the country has resulted in a shortage of medical supplies such as medicines and oxygen. In view of this, the Delhi High Court on Monday said that leaders of political parties should not stock up on medicines used for treating Covid-19 patients.

On the pandemic, the Reserve Bank of India said that the biggest toll of the second wave can be felt on demand and employment. In its monthly bulletin for May, the central bank flagged loss of mobility and discretionary spending among consumers. The RBI, however, added that the “loss of momentum” in the economy was not as severe as last year and that the second wave had dented, but not debilitated, economic activity in the first half of April-June quarter.

Globally, the coronavirus has now infected 16.36 crore people and killed over 33.85 lakh since the pandemic broke out in December 2019, according to Johns Hopkins University.