India registers over 4,000 COVID-19 deaths for 2nd day in row

India again reported over 4,000 COVID-19 fatalities in a single day, taking the country's death toll to 242,362, according to the data released by the Health Ministry on Sunday.

The country recorded 403,738 new coronavirus cases, 386,444 discharges, and 4,092 deaths in the last 24 hours, the Union Health Ministry said.

The number of active cases crossed 3.7 million and 18.3 million people have recovered, the figures showed.

According to the Indian Council of Medical Research, the country conducted a total of 1,865,428 tests for COVID-19 over the past day.

A consignment of oxygen generators and 1,000 ventilators arrived from the UK. Each generator has a capacity to produce 500 liters of oxygen per minute, enough to treat 50 people at a time, said an official statement by the Foreign Ministry.

Meanwhile, the Indian Supreme Court on Saturday set up a 12-member National Task Force (NTF) to facilitate a public health response to COVID-19 "based on scientific and specialized domain knowledge."

The NTF will specifically address issues relating to streamlining of oxygen allocation to different states, review and suggest measures to ensure availability of essential drugs and medicines, and adopt remedial measures to ensure preparedness for future emergencies.

The court said the establishment of such a task force will enable the decision-makers to have inputs that go beyond finding ad-hoc solutions to present problems.

The country has been struggling with a deadly second wave that has severely strained its health system, leading to shortages of oxygen supplies at hospitals as well as beds and coronavirus treatment drugs such as Remdesivir.