India Coronavirus Dispatch: Daily cases cross 260,000 in new record high

Share of the elderly in Covid-19 infections, deaths in Maharashtra rise, many migrant workers start heading back home, and more-news relevant to India's fight against Covid-19

Over 260,000 fresh cases reported

India reported 2,61,500 fresh coronavirus infections on Sunday, taking the cumulative caseload to 14.7 million, according to central health ministry data. This is the fourth straight day with over 2,00,000 fresh daily cases. The country saw 1,501 deaths due to the pandemic, taking the death toll to 177,150. The active caseload is at 1.8 million infections, while the total recoveries have surged to 12.8 million. As many as 122 million shots have been administered since the nationwide inoculation programme kicked off on January 16. Of these, 2.6 million were given on Saturday. Read more here

Fear another lockdown forces migrant workers to start the journey home again

As coronavirus infections continue to soar across the country migrant workers are worried again, a report in ThePrint said. The trauma of last year's nationwide lockdown is still fresh in their minds and so deep-set that many have already begun the journey back to their hometowns even before the government has announced a lockdown. Here is a series of pictures of migrant workers at a railway station in Ahmedabad waiting to catch a train back home. See here

Maharashtra: Share of senior citizens in Covid-19 infections, deaths rises this year

The proportion of senior citizens among those contracting Covid-19 and succumbing to the disease in Maharashtra has risen from last year, a report in The Indian Express said. Last year, 15.94 per cent of total cases in Maharashtra were of people aged more than 60 years. In February this year, it was 16.4 per cent of total infections, and in March, it rose to 18 per cent of total infections. Similarly, in 2020, 57.51 per cent of total deaths were of senior citizens, their share rose to 64.5 per cent this year. Read more here

OPINION: Modi govt unaffected by Covid horror

Despite the long lines outside hospitals, vaccination centres, crematoriums and graveyards, the horror of the Covid crisis that is unfolding seems not to have affected the Modi government, writes Tavleen Singh in a column for The Indian Express. Singh asks, why are millions still being allowed to attend election rallies in the Bengal polls? Why was the Kumbh Mela allowed to take place? Why are municipal elections going ahead in UP? Pictures of rows of funeral pyres that went viral on social media last week are terrifying, Singh writes. Read more here

Over 700 doctors have died of Covid: Indian Medical Association

Data shared by the Indian Medical Association (IMA) with The Indian Express has shown that as many as 747 doctors have died of Covid-19 since the start of the pandemic last year. The highest number of such deaths were from Tamil Nadu at 89 deaths and West Bengal at 80 fatalities. There were 74 doctors who died in Maharashtra while another 70 died in Andhra Pradesh. Sixty-six doctors have died in Uttar Pradesh and 68 in Karnataka, while 62 have succumbed to the infection in Gujarat. Forty doctors have died in Bihar while 22 each in Delhi and Madhya Pradesh. Read more here