India reports 196,000 COVID-19 cases, lowest single-day rise in over a month Delhi leader says federal government vaccine procurement policies are 'a joke'

India reported 196,427 new cases of COVID-19 on Tuesday, the lowest single-day rise in cases since April 14, according to a CNN tally of figures from the Indian Ministry of Health.
This marks a decline from the first week of May when the country was reporting more than 300,000 cases daily.
India also reported 3,511 fatalities on Tuesday, the lowest single-day death toll since May 4, according to figures from the Indian Ministry of Health.
On Monday, India became the third country to top 300,000 deaths from the virus, after Brazil and the United States.
The Indian Ministry of Health said on Monday that the weekly positivity rate had declined to 12.6 percent, and 72 percent of the country's active cases were being reported from eight states.
However, the director of the National Center for Disease Control, Sujeet Singh, warned the growth rate of cases continues to be "a matter of concern," according to a news release from the health ministry.
India has reported a total of 26,948,874 COVID-19 cases, including 307,231 deaths. There are 2,586,782 confirmed active cases in the country, according to the health ministry.
Meanwhile, Delhi's deputy chief minister said the Indian central government's vaccine rollout is "a joke," saying international companies including Pfizer have declined their separate requests for vaccines.
"What kind of a joke is being made of vaccines," Delhi's deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia said in an online address on Monday while discussing the central government's efforts at vaccine procurement and distribution.
"If we ask the central government for vaccines from Indian companies, they say they will give us only 4 lakh (400,000 doses)," Sisodia said. The population of Delhi was more than 11 million in the last census in 2011.
Sisodia added that when state governments went directly to foreign companies, they were told the companies were negotiating with the federal government instead.
The deputy chief minister claimed Moderna and Pfizer had declined the local government's requests for vaccinations, saying they would not sell to individual states.
In a statement to CNN, Pfizer said the company would continue to engage with the Indian government in making their vaccine available for use in India.
"During the pandemic phase, across the world, Pfizer is supplying the COVID-19 vaccine only to central Governments and supranational organizations for deployment in the countries' national immunization programs," the statement said.
"The allocation of doses and implementation plan within a country is a decision for local governments based on relevant health authority guidance."
Moderna has not yet responded to CNN's request for comment.
Sisodia questioned why India is still dependent solely on two domestically-made vaccines, which were exported without first catering to in-country demand.
"Why are vaccines not available, where did they go? I have said many times the central government is to blame for this," Sisodia said.
"If the country is forced to deal with the brunt of corona it's because the central government has completely failed in vaccine management."