Shafaq News / 379,257 new cases and 3,645 deaths over the past 24 hours in India, a new record in the Country that struggles to curb Covid-19.

The last 24 hours brought India's tally of infections to nearly 18 million. It was also the deadliest day so far, carrying the toll to 204,832.

Experts believe the official tally vastly underestimates the actual toll in a nation of 1.35 billion, however.

The World Health Organization said in its weekly epidemiological update that India accounted for 38% of the 5.7 million cases reported worldwide to it last week.

Early modeling showed that the B.1.617 variant of the virus detected in India had a higher growth rate than other variants in the country, suggesting increased transmissibility, it said.

Meanwhile, Indians struggled to register online for a mass vaccination drive set to begin at the weekend as the situation worsened by shortages of hospital beds and medical oxygen.

The United States is sending supplies worth more than $100 million to India to help it fight a surge of COVID-19 cases, the White House said in a statement on Wednesday.

The supplies, which will begin arriving today and continue into next week, include 1,000 oxygen cylinders, 15 million N95 masks and 1 million rapid diagnostic tests, the statement said.

For its part, the WHO was providing 4,000 oxygen concentrators, which only require an energy source,. Mobile field hospitals are being set up and laboratory supplies provided for testing.

Studies continue into virus variants circulating there, including the B.1.617 variant with two mutations, first detected from samples collected last December, he said, citing some evidence that they may be more contagious.