Coronavirus: India accounts for nearly half of global cases, quarter of deaths

Cases exceeded 300,000 for 14th consecutive day, but experts say the actual numbers of dead and infected could be up to 10 times higher

Oxygen supplies are being rushed across India, while some inoculation centres have shut as vaccine shots run out

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A man grieves during a mass cremation of bodies in India. Photo: ZUMA Wire/dpa

Published: 2:05pm, 5 May 2021Updated: 10:03pm, 5 May 2021

India’s coronavirus deaths rose by a record 3,780 during the last 24 hours, a day after it became the second country to cross the grim milestone of 20 million infections after the United States.

Daily cases rose by 382,315 on Wednesday for a 14th straight day of infections in excess of 300,000, health ministry data showed.

The World Health Organization (WHO) said India accounted for nearly half of the world’s Covid-19 cases reported last week and one in four of deaths.

“India accounts for over 90 per cent of both cases and deaths in the region, as well as 46 per cent of global cases and 25 per cent of global deaths reported in the past week,” the Geneva-based agency said in its weekly epidemiological report released on Wednesday.

The surge of a highly infectious variant has seen hospitals run out of beds and oxygen, and left morgues and crematoriums overflowing. Many people have died in ambulances and car parks waiting for a bed or oxygen.

Experts have warned that case numbers will keep rising until the end of May and could reach 500,000 new infections a day.