India surpassed a grim milestone of 20 million coronavirus cases Tuesday after the country registered more than 357,000 infections in the last 24 hours, according to Health Ministry figures.  

There has been a slight drop in daily infections since Saturday, when the nation crossed 400,000 daily cases, a new global record. The country registered 392,488 cases on Sunday, while the number was less on Monday at 368,147. 

According to the Health Ministry, a total of 357,229 cases pushed India's total to 20.28 million Tuesday. There were also 3,449 fatalities in the last 24 hours, and the total virus-linked deaths reached 222,408. 

Amid an exponential rise in daily COVID-19 cases which has brought the country’s health system near to collapse, India is also facing an acute shortage of hospital beds, medical oxygen supplies and coronavirus treatment drugs like Remdesivir. Many countries have come forward and sent medical supplies to India. 

There have been a number of incidents across the country where patients have died due to a lack of medical oxygen. A number of hospitals in the capital New Delhi, which has been badly hit by the virus, continue to raise alarm over the shortage of medical oxygen supplies at hospitals. 

India last week began vaccinating everyone above the age of 18. But the world's largest immunization drive has slowed down as a number of Indian states are facing shortages of vaccine supplies. 

According to the figures available, 158 million vaccine doses have been administrated so far./aa