Covid update: India reports over 4L cases, 4k deaths

India has reported 4,03,738 fresh Covid cases and 4,092 deaths in the last 24 hours, taking the overall caseload to 2.22 crore. This is the fifth time in a week that the country has reported over 4 lakh daily infections. India has also reported 4,098 new fatalities, pushing the total death toll to 2,42,362. The active cases in the country stand at 37,36,648.

It is the fifth time after May 1 that India has crossed the four-lakh-mark of new Covid cases. On Friday, India recorded the highest ever 4,14,188 cases.

According to the Health Ministry, a total of 3,86,444 people have been discharged in the last 24 hours, while 1,83,17,404 people have been cured from Covid till date.

According to the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), 30,22,75,471 samples have been tested up to May 8 for Covid-19. Of these 18,65,428 samples were tested on Saturday.

The Health Ministry said that a total of 16,94,39,663 people have been vaccinated so far in the country, including 20,23,532, who were administered vaccines in the last 24 hours.

Here's more updates:

*Delhi lockdown extended by a week till May 17; Delhi Metro services to be suspended during this period: CM Arvind Kejriwal 

*With the pandemic's second wave hitting hard, Karnataka recorded 47,563 new Covid cases, including 21,534 in Bengaluru were registered in a day while 482 patients succumbed to the virus, the state health bulletin said on Saturday.

*Supreme Court has set up a 12-member task force for oxygen distribution to states.

*South Africa’s health ministry said on Saturday it had detected the first four cases of a new coronavirus variant that emerged in India and was responsible for a surge of infections and deaths in the Asian country.

Meanwhile, the overall global Covid-19 caseload has topped 157.2 million, while the deaths have surged to more than 3.27 million, according to the Johns Hopkins University.