India records over 4,000 daily Covid-19 deaths, 360,000 cases in 24 hours

According to health ministry data, the Asian country has registered a total 258,317 coronavirus deaths and 23.7 cases since the start of the pandemic, EFE reports.

India remains the world's most affected country by the virus in terms of caseload, behind the United States.

A total of 1.9 million RT-PCR tests were also conducted to detect the coronavirus, marking an increase from last week when an average of 1.5 million tests were conducted per day.

The recovery rate hovers around 83 percent, compared to the 97 percent during the peak of the first wave in September last year when an average 100,000 daily cases were recorded.

India, which sees its vaccination drive as an answer to the pandemic that has crippled its healthcare system in recent weeks, inoculated 1.8 million people in the last 24 hours.

Since the start of the vaccination campaign in January, the country has administered 177 million doses of either Oxford-AstraZeneca's Covishield, manufactured by Serum Institute of India, or the indigenous Covaxin.

Besides the two vaccines manufactured in India, the country has also granted approval to Russia's Sputnik V, which is expected to be made available in the market in the coming weeks.

However, it remains far from the government target of inoculating 300 million people by July, owing to a shortage of vaccines.