India reports decline in new cases

India saw a significant drop in daily coronavirus infections on Monday, with 366,161 reported - after logging more than400,000 cases for four straight days - but this would have likely been due to relatively lower testing at the weekend, experts said. Covid-19 claimed 3,754 lives in the past 24 hours, according to the country's Health Ministry.

This was also a decline, after 4,000deaths a day for two consecutive days. The overall death toll now stands at 246,116. The new infections brought the overall caseload to more than 22.6million, it said. Official data showed that 1,474,606 samples weretested on Sunday, almost 400,000 samples fewer than the 1,865,428 and1,808,344 samples tested on previous days.

After sparking a health care crisis in India's main urban centers ofNew Delhi and Mumbai, the surge in infections in rural regions and cities like information technology hub Bengaluru, posed a fresh challenge for authorities. Hospitals reported shortages of beds andmedical oxygen as patients flooded the facilities.

Medical experts say mass vaccination is the only solution to India'sCovid-19 crisis, but the inoculation drive that began in January has faltered. Nearly 180 million doses have been administered so far. The pace has slowed down, despite the vaccine drive being extended to all adults above 18 years since May 1.

In recent days, many states in India have declared lockdowns, opposition leaders urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to announce nationwide curbs. India, the second-most infected country after the United States, which has a caseload of 32.7 million, is in the grip of a second wave that began mid-February.

The pandemic has claimed nearly 3.3 million lives worldwide since it first emerged in late 2019.