People in India struggled to register online for a mass vaccination campaign scheduled to begin this weekend as the country's coronavirus toll surpassed 200,000 Wednesday - exacerbated by a lack of hospital beds and medical oxygen.
According to a government statement, the CoWIN website received 2.7 million hits per minute and 383 million cumulative hits in the first three hours.
For the past week, at least 300,000 people have tested positive for the second wave of infections, overwhelming health facilities and crematoriums and triggering an increasingly urgent response from allies overseas sending equipment.
The last 24 hours saw 360,960 new cases, the world's highest single-day total, bringing India's total number of infections to nearly 18 million. It was also the deadliest day so far, with 3,293 people dead bringing the total to 201,187.
However, experts agree that the official tally greatly understates the real toll in a country of 1.35 billion people.
On Thursday, the U.S. announced that it will begin delivering supplies worth more than $100 million, with individual states and private companies also preparing oxygen, equipment and supplies for India hospitals.
Foreign aid has also begun to arrive from the U.K. and Singapore. Russia, New Zealand and France have pledged to send emergency medical equipment, and Pakistan and China have agreed to cooperate.
According to the World Health Organization's weekly epidemiological update, nearly 5.7 million new cases were reported globally last week, with India accounting for 38% of them. It also stated that the B.1.617 variant of the virus discovered in India has a faster growth rate than other variants in the region, implying greater transmissibility.
About 9% of India's population have received one dose since the campaign began in January with health workers and then the elderly.
New Delhi is under a lockdown until next week and the government of the western state of Maharashtra, home to financial capital, Mumbai, said it was considering extending its lockdown until mid-May.
