India had 362,727 new COVID-19 infections over the last 24 hours while deaths climbed by 4,120, taking the toll to 258,317, health ministry data showed.
The South Asian nation’s total caseload now stands at 23.7 million.
The top hit state Maharashtra’s count remained under 50,000 for the fourth consecutive day, while Kerala and Tamil Nadu recorded new highs of over 43,000 and 30,000 cases, respectively.
Total number of samples tested up to May 12 is 30,94,48,585 including 18,64,594 samples tested on Wednesday, according to ICMR data.
A virus variant that has been spreading rapidly in India and designated a variant of concern by the World Health Organization (WHO) might be more contagious than most versions of the coronavirus, the UN health agency said in a report it published on Tuesday evening.
The WHO emphasised in its report that it wasn’t yet clear how much the variant, known as B.1.617, had contributed to the devastating surge that has crushed India in recent weeks.
