India’s coronavirus toll rose sharply on Wednesday by 3,998 deaths to 4,18,480 as Maharashtra revised its figures. The state added 3,509 old fatalities to its toll, data from the health ministry showed.
The country recorded 42,015 new coronavirus infections in the last 24 hours, as the tally of cases since the outbreak of the pandemic in January last year rose to 3,12,16,337. The number was 39.61% higher than Tuesday’s count of 30,093 cases.
The number of active cases in India rose by 1,040 to 4,07,170 while the count of recoveries reached 3,03,90,687.
Maharashtra now has 97,932 active Covid-19 cases, 60,00,911 recoveries and 1,30,753 deaths, according to the Union health ministry data.
“Maharashtra has carried out 14th reconciliation exercise of Covid data in the state,” the Union health ministry said. “As a result, the state’s positive case tally is increased by 2,479 while the death tally is increased by 3,509 in the media bulletin dated 20th July 2021.”
The process of data reconciliation is the addition of backlog data to the state tally.
Meanwhile, the Maharashtra health department bulletin on Tuesday evening recorded 6,910 new Covid-19 cases and 147 deaths in a span of 24 hours, reported India Today. Over 4 crore Covid-19 vaccines have been administered in the state so far.
But the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai on Tuesday said they have run out of coronavirus vaccines and no shots will be administered on Wednesday, the Hindustan Times reported. Even on Tuesday, only 58 of the 309 government-run vaccination centres were functional in areas under the civic body.
Union Minister of State for Health Bharati Pravin Pawar, however, claimed in the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday that there were no shortages of Covid-19 vaccines in any state, PTI reported. During a discussion on the Covid-19 situation in the country, Housing and Urban Affairs Minister Hardeep Singh Puri also defended the government’s management of the pandemic and accused Opposition parties of politicising the health crisis.
Meanwhile, the Maharashtra government told the Bombay High Court that door-to-door vaccination for bedridden citizens will begin in the state capital from August 1, according to PTI.
Globally, the coronavirus disease has infected more than 19.14 crore people and killed over 41.18 lakh in the world since the pandemic broke out in December 2019, according to Johns Hopkins University.
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