NEW DELHI: India recorded 58,419 new coronavirus cases over the past 24 hours on Sunday, the lowest daily figure in nearly three months, as the second wave of the pandemic continues to wane in the country.
The overall caseload climbed to 29.88 million, a federal Health Ministry bulletin said, the world's second-highest number of coronavirus infections after the United States.
Daily infections were at the lowest since March 24, when India logged 53,476 cases, according to data on the website of Johns Hopkins University.
The daily numbers represent a sharp slowdown from the peak of the second wave in early May when India was registering over 400,000 cases every day.
A total of 1,576 deaths were reported on Sunday, bringing the overall death toll to 386,713, the ministry said. Experts say both coronavirus infections and related deaths in India are likely much higher due to undercounting by government agencies.
Many Indian states have begun easing regional lockdowns amid the receding second wave.
Courts and federal government have however urged regional governments to ensure physical distancing and coronavirus-appropriate behaviour as huge crowds thronged markets and malls.
Randeep Guleria, a top government doctor and advisor, has also warned that a third Covid-19 wave may hit India in six to eight weeks if people lowered their guard.
India's main challenge remains vaccinating its huge population, he said. So far, only 3.8 per cent of the more than 1.3 billionin habitants in India have been fully vaccinated against Covid-19.
Meanwhile, a few weeks ago, New Delhi's crematoriums were operating around the clock dealing with Covid-19 victims. Now the Indian capital's shopping malls and markets are buzzing again. But doctors are worried that India is letting its guard down again, just like in January and February before a devastating coronavirus surge that led to a near-collapse of the healthcare system.
Clutching a bag of clothes as she shopped with her new husband at Delhi's busy Select City Walk mall, Surili Gupta said she was "fed up being cooped up inside".
"I needed this break, for how long you can remain locked up?" the 26-year-old sales executive said as she waited for a table at the mall's packed food hall. "The coronavirus is not going any time soon, so one has to learn to live with it. I am sure with the vaccinations and all, we will be fine."
Behind her, a big weekend crowd chatted and laughed over Indian dosas and Chinese noodles, paying scant regard to public announcements reminding them about social distancing and wearing masks.
A couple queueing at a popular burger joint squabbled, masks hanging from their faces. Mall staff performed perfunctory temperature checks and reminded people to sanitise their hands. Not far away, shoppers thronged the open-air warren of shops and stalls at Lajpat Nagar market, bargaining for scarves, bangles and cheap cosmetics.
There was lively trade for food vendors, who sold kulchey-chholey -- flatbread served with spicy chickpeas -- and other favourites to punters, masks dangling as they ate.
"I would not have come today but it was very urgent," Prerna Jain, 21, a college student who had come with her mother, said. "My cousin is getting married and I needed to buy some stuff. I know it's not yet safe but what can I do? This (event) is equally important."
Delhi, a megacity of 20 million people, saw horrendous scenes in April and May when coronavirus cases went through the roof, as they did across the country.
Crematoriums ran out of space, burning bodies day and night, as gasping patients died outside hospitals, unable to get beds, oxygen and drugs. - dpa/AFP
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