On May 23, 2021, India witnessed highest fatalities with 4,454 deaths in 24 hours.

Gulf Today Report

India on Friday crossed the grim milestone of more than 400,000 people lost to the coronavirus as the country on Saturday recorded 738 deaths, lowest since April 8 and added 44,111 new cases of COVID in past 24 hours.

Some experts say the number that though massive is still thought to be a vast undercount because of a lack of testing and reporting.

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More than half of India’s reported coronavirus deaths — the third most of any country — have occurred over the past two months as the delta variant of the virus tore through the country and overwhelmed the already strained health system.

India’s federal ministers from the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party have dismissed reports of undercounting as exaggerated and misleading.

Shoppers walk at a shopping mall in New Delhi. File / Reuters

The first death due to coronavirus in the country was reported last year in March. On May 23, 2021, the country witnessed highest fatalities with 4,454 deaths in 24 hours.

New cases are on the decline after exceeding 400,000 a day in May, but authorities are preparing for another possible wave and are trying to ramp up vaccination.

The Indian Health Ministry says the active cases have now come down below 600,000.

It is also the 19th consecutive day when India reported less than one lakh new coronavirus cases. On March 23, India had recorded 47,262 cases while on June 22 India reported 42,640 cases.

The active cases have now come down below 600,000. The country has 595,565 active cases presently and has witnessed 394,493 deaths so far.

According to the Union Health Ministry, a total of 64,818 people have been discharged in the last 24 hours, taking the total discharge to 29,193,085 till date.

The Health Ministry said that a total of 315,045,926 people have been vaccinated so far in the country, including 6,119,169 who were administered vaccines in the last 24 hours.

According to the Indian Council of Medical Research, 399,568,448 samples have been tested up to June 24 for COVID-19. Of these 1,735,781 samples were tested on Thursday.