COVID-19 tracker, 13 May: India records over 4,000 deaths for second straight day; 3,62,727 fresh cases in past 24 hrs

On Thursday, India recorded over 4,000 COVID-19 deaths for the second consecutive day.

With 4,120 deaths in the last 24 hours, the toll rose to 2,58,317, according to the Union health ministry's data.

On Wednesday, the country saw a record 4,205 deaths due to COVID-19 .

The number of COVID-19 deaths have been on an upward trend since the second wave hit in the first week of April.

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The number of new cases showed a minuscule decline on Thursday, with 3,62,727 new infections being reported. On 6 May, India saw the highest single-day spike in cases across the globe when 4,14,188 new cases were registered.

The total caseload rose to 2,37,03,665, while the number of active cases rose to 37,10,525. The active cases comprise 15.65 percent of the total infections.

The Union health ministry said that the national COVID-19 recovery rate has improved to 83.26 percent. The number of people who have recuperated from the disease rose to to 1,97,34,823, while the case fatality rate was 1.09 percent, the data updated at 8 am showed.

According to the ICMR, 30,94,48,585 samples have been tested till 12 May, with 18,64,594 samples being tested on Thursday.

The 4,120 new fatalities include 816 from Maharashtra, 516 from Karnataka, 326 from Uttar Pradesh, 300 from Delhi, 293 from Tamil Nadu, 193 from Punjab, 165 from Haryana, 164 from Rajasthan, 153 from Chhattisgarh, 135 from West Bengal, 109 from Uttarakhand and 102 from Gujarat.

A total of 2,58,317 deaths have been reported so far in the country including 78,007 from Maharashtra, 20,368 from Karnataka, 20,310 from Delhi, 16,471 from Tamil Nadu, 16,369 from Uttar Pradesh, 12,728 from West Bengal, 11,111 from Punjab and 11,094, from Chhattisgarh.

On Wednesday, the Union health ministry said Karnataka, Maharashtra, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Chhattisgarh, West Bengal, Haryana, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh cumulatively account for 82.51 percent of India's total active cases.

Meanwhile, WHO said that India "accounts for 95 percent of cases and 93 percent of deaths in the South-East Asia region, as well as 50 percent of global cases and 30 percent of global deaths," NDTV reported.

India's COVID-19 tally had crossed the 20 lakh-mark on 7 August, 30 lakh on 23 August, 40 lakh on 5 September and 50 lakh on 16 September. It went past 60 lakh on 28 September, 70 lakh on 11 October, crossed 80 lakh on 29 October, 90 lakh on 20 November, and surpassed the one-crore mark on 19 December. India crossed the grim milestone of 2 crore cases on 4 May.

In a bid to curb the exponential second wave, states like Bihar and Maharashtra on Thursday extended the lockdown restrictions till 25 May and 1 June, respectively.

With inputs from PTI