India Reports Record Daily Uptick in Covid-19 Fatalities

By Staff, Agencies

India added a record 3,780 new daily COVID-19 fatalities to its overall death toll in the pandemic on Wednesday.

According to authorities, the country also registered over 382,000 new infections in the past 24 hours as it faces a swelling outbreak.

As new infections soar, India's cumulative total of confirmed cases climbed over the 20 million mark on Tuesday.

The dramatic outbreak has put the hospitals in the country under intense pressure, with oxygen supplies running out; India's authorities argue, however, that while the supplies were enough to handle the pandemic, the distribution was lagging behind due to flawed logistics.

On Wednesday, according to India's Railways Minister Piyush Goyal, two trains arrived in the capital of New Delhi to deliver shipments of liquefied oxygen.

Also on Wednesday, India released some $6.7 billion in cheap funding for various healthcare entities, including hospitals and vaccine makers.

The new rules will make it easier for them to apply for loans and thus ultimately make healthcare more accessible for the general public, authorities said.

"The immediate objective is to preserve human life and restore livelihoods through all means possible," Reserve Bank of India governor Shaktikanta Das said.