NEW DELHI — India on Wednesday registered a record spike in coronavirus-related deaths over the last 24 hours, pushing its total fatalities past the 250,000-mark.

According to the federal health ministry’s figures, 4,205 more deaths were reported over the past 24 hours.

The previous high was 4,187 reported on May 7. The country has recorded nearly 50,000 deaths in the last 14 days at a daily average of more than 3,528.

India also reported 348,421 new coronavirus cases over the past 24 hours, bringing the total number of confirmed infections to over 23 million.

Meanwhile, over 19 million have so far recovered from the disease and the country has 37,040,99 active cases, the ministry data showed. This means that the COVID-19 recovery rate has increased to 82.75 percent and the active cases comprise 16.16 percent of the total infections.

Meanwhile, a number of cities, including Mumbai and Delhi, reported a shortage of vaccines.

The chief minister of Delhi, Arvind Kejriwal, on Tuesday urged the federal government to allow more pharmaceutical companies to manufacture COVID-19 vaccines in order to meet the high demand. — Agencies