New Delhi: The second most populous country in the world is ravaged by novel coronavirus infection for the past several weeks. The second wave of the coronavirus has overwhelmed the country as it has become the global epicenter of COVID-19. 

• In the past 24 hours, over 362,000 new cases were detected in India. This means that the country broke the world record for most cases reported in a single day once more. It must be noted that it bettered its own record set only a couple of days ago.

• In the past 24 hours, over 3,200 new coronavirus-related deaths were reported in India taking the country's total Covid death tally past 200,000. It's the country's highest-ever single-day death tally.

The healthcare system of India has collapsed as Modi's government has failed miserably in containing the flu bug as well as providing medical care to millions of patients. Desperate scenes can be seen outside hundreds of government hospitals in India as critically ill COVID patients gasp for oxygen amidst an extreme shortage of oxygen cylinders in the country. In addition, anti-viral medicine Remdesivir that is being used in several countries in the COVID management protocol is not available in the country.

Health professionals working on the frontlines in India believe that the actual figures are way bigger than the reported ones and there are no chances of this COVID situation getting better anytime soon. Doctors and local authorities have urged the public to strictly follow Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) and go out in public only when necessary.

The vaccination campaign has also been amped up by the authorities but owing to the massive population of the country, it will take several months to immunize a majority of the population. Till then only strict compliance to SOPs is the nation's best bet to minimize the damage.

As per the latest statistics provided by the website, 'Worldometers', India's distressing COVID-19 situation looks like this:

Total Cases: 17,988,637      

New Cases (Last 24 hours): +362,902     

Total Deaths: 201,165        

New Deaths (Last 24 hours): +3,285    

Total Recovered: 14,807,704           

Active Cases: 2,979,768