- India on Wednesday registered 3,82,315 new coronavirus cases, taking the tally in the country to 2,06,65,148 since the pandemic broke out in January 2020. The toll climbed by 3,780 to 2,26,188. The number of active cases in the country stood at 34,87,229. India has recorded more than 3 lakh cases a day for nearly 15 days in a row, since April 22.
- Maharashtra reported a record 920 new deaths from Covid-19 and 57,640 new infections. The state tally rose to 48,80,542, including 6,41,596 active cases, 41,64,098 recoveries and 72,662 fatalities. Mumbai alone reported 3,879 new cases and 77 deaths.
- K VijayRaghavan, principal scientific advisor to the Union government, warned that a third wave of the coronavirus pandemic was inevitable. He said that vaccines have to be “updated” to deal with new strains of the virus, along with further surveillance.
- A day after the Centre said it had dispatched Covid-19 relief supplies donated by other countries to states and medical institutions across India, some hospitals identified as the recipients told The Print they were yet to receive the supplies. On May 3, Scroll.in was the first to report that 300 tonnes of foreign assistance had arrived at Delhi airport since April 28, but states were yet to hear about their share in it.
- The Supreme Court stayed a Delhi High Court contempt notice to the Centre for failure to implement an order on immediate supply of full quota of oxygen to the Capital city during the coronavirus crisis.
- Reserve Bank of India Governor Shaktikanta Das announced a Rs 50,000 crore lending programme to help ramp up the health infrastructure as India is battered by a second wave of the coronavirus pandemic.
- Karnataka reported 50,112 fresh Covid-19 cases, which pushed the state’s overall count 17,41,046. Out of these, 23,106 cases are from Bengaluru Urban.The toll in the state rose to 16,884 after 346 deaths were recorded.
- West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and her Kerala counterpart Pinarayi Vijayan on Wednesday wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, urging him to allocate greater quantities of medical oxygen and vaccines to the states as Covid-19 infections and deaths continue to mount at an alarming rate.
- A group of Bharatiya Janata Party legislators brought up alleged corruption in the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike’s bed allocation to Covid-19 patients amid the second wave of the pandemic, in Karnataka’s capital. In doing so, the group, including Bengaluru South MP Tejasvi Surya, also gave a communal twist to the allegations, accusing Muslims in the war room of being responsible for the conspiracy, without any evidence.
- The coronavirus has infected 15.39 crore people across the world and killed over 32.23 lakh since the pandemic broke out in December 2019, according to Johns Hopkins University. Over 9.05 crore people have recovered from the infection.
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