India Coronavirus Dispatch: Up to 4.9 mn excess deaths likely - study

Doctor contracts two variants at the same time, study finds over 119,000 children lost at least one parent or grandparent to Covid, and more-news relevant to India's fight against the pandemic

Over 42,000 fresh cases reported

India reported 42,015 fresh coronavirus infections on Wednesday, taking the cumulative caseload to 31.2 million, according to central health ministry data. The country saw 3,998 more deaths due to the pandemic, taking the death toll to 418,480. The active caseload is at 407,170, while the total recoveries have surged to 30.4 million. As many as 415 million vaccine shots have been administered since the nationwide inoculation programme kicked off on January 16. Of these, 3.4 million were given on Tuesday. Read more

Up to 4.9 million ‘excess deaths’ likely so far during pandemic