MUMBAI (Reuters) – India’s biggest cities prepared for tougher blockades and other restrictions on COVID-19 on Saturday, when infections peaked at six months, while a month-long increase continued in the third country most hit by the pandemic .
India’s richest state, Maharashtra, was responsible for more than half of the 89,129 new cases reported by the national health ministry in the past 24 hours, with a record of 47,827 infections.
The chief minister of the state warned citizens of a blockade if cases continued to increase at the current rate, saying the medical infrastructure would be inadequate in a few weeks.
In the southern state of Karnataka, where the technological capital of India, Bengaluru, is located, authorities ordered the closure of gyms, banned functions at religious sites and told cinemas, bars, pubs and restaurants to limit the number of people allowed .
India’s capital, New Delhi, has recorded more than 3,500 cases, the highest number this year, but its chief minister has ruled out yet another blockade.
Daily coronavirus cases increased from about 15,000 in early March to 88,000 or more in early April.
The South Asian country registered 89,129 new infections and 714 deaths, the ministry said. That was the biggest daily increase since September 20 and the highest number of deaths since October 21, according to a Reuters count.
India follows only the United States and Brazil in infections, with more than 12 million registered since the outbreak began.
The government has stepped up its vaccination campaign in recent weeks, but vaccines have been slow to reach 1.3 billion Indians.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi faced criticism for exporting vaccines produced in India, when most Indians have not yet obtained them.
(Global vaccination tracker: here)
(Interactive chart that tracks the global spread of the coronavirus: here)
Reporting by Shilpa Jamkhandikar; Editing by Clarence Fernandez and William Mallard