India's new daily coronavirus cases hit four-month high

NEW DELHI: India reported 43,846 new coronavirus cases on Sunday, the biggest daily jump in four months, as its richest state Maharashtra continued to account for more than half of the infections.

Deaths rose by 197, the highest in more than two months, to 159,755, the health ministry reported.

The rise in India’s COVID-19 cases peaked at nearly 100,000 a day in September, and had been falling steadily until late last month.

Separately, the Serum Institute of India (SII) has told Brazil, Saudi Arabia and Morocco that further supplies of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine will be delayed due to surging demand at home and as it works through a capacity expansion, a source with direct knowledge of the matter said.

The news comes as India, the world’s biggest vaccine maker, is being criticised domestically for donating or selling more doses than inoculations conducted at home, despite reporting the most number of coronavirus infections after the United States and Brazil.

India is currently seeing a second surge of cases, taking its total to about 11.6 million.