India may see new daily Covid-19 cases rise to 500,000 in mid-May

NEW DELHI, April 25 (Xinhua) -- The ongoing second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in India is projected to come to its peak in the middle of May, local media reported on Sunday.

Projections presented at a meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and chief ministers of the worst affected Indian states by COVID-19 showed that after the states of Maharashtra and Gujarat and the national capital New Delhi, the northern state of Uttar Pradesh would be a major hotspot with over 190,000 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 to be reported every day, according to the media reports.

When reaching the peak time, the daily COVID-19 cases in the Asian country are expected to rise to 500,000 and may subside between June and July.

According to the media reports, the projections were presented by a senior federal government official at the meeting on Sunday, at which officials agreed that "heavily populated states are at particular risk; and, health infrastructure in states is not adequate enough to cope with the present serious scenario."

Uttar Pradesh is projected to suffer a daily shortage of around 16,752 hospital beds with supplied medical oxygen, of 3,061 intensive care unit beds, and of at least 1,538 ventilators.

The COVID-19 figures continue to surge in India every day, as the federal government has ruled out imposing a complete lockdown to contain the worsening situation.

The country's COVID-19 tally reached 16,960,172 on Sunday with 349,691 new cases recorded in the past 24 hours.

This was the fourth consecutive day when over 300,000 cases were registered in a single day.