India has reported its highest daily death toll, with 1,761 recorded overnight and large swathes of the country now under lockdown.

On Tuesday, the health ministry reported 259,170 new infections, the world’s highest daily rate. Daily infections have been above 200,000 for six consecutive days.

India now has a total of 15.32 million coronavirus cases, second only to the US. Although the official death stands at 180,530 – far behind the 567,538 deaths recorded in the US – experts have warned that this figure does not reflect ground reality and could rise sharply as the health system struggled to cope with a second wave of cases.

Several major cities are already reporting far larger numbers of cremations and burials under coronavirus protocols than official COVID-19 death tolls, according to crematorium and cemetery workers, the media and a review of government data.

Bhramar Mukherjee, a professor of biostatistics and epidemiology at the University of Michigan, said many parts of India were in “data denial”.

“Everything is so muddy,” she told Reuters. “It feels like nobody understands the situation very clearly, and that’s very irksome.”

New figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show that the UK unemployment rate fell to 4.9 per cent in the three months to February, down from 5 per cent previously.

The jobs market shows signs of being “broadly stable” but “remains subdued”, said the agency.

But it added that there are “over 800,000 fewer employees than before the pandemic struck” and five million people are employed but still on furlough.

Darren Morgan, ONS director of economic statistics, said: “However, with the prospect of businesses reopening, there was a marked rise in job vacancies in March, especially in sectors such as hospitality.”

Professor Sir Mark Walport, former chief scientific adviser to the government, told BBC Breakfast that the decision to put India on the red list may have come a bit late.

“These decisions are almost inevitably taken a bit too late in truth, but what’s absolutely clear is that this variant is more transmissible in India,” he said.

“You can see that it’s becoming the dominant variant and the other concern about it is that it has a second change in the spike protein which may mean that it’s able to be a bit more effective at escaping an immune response, either a natural one or vaccine-induced one, so there’s good reasons for wanting to keep it out of the country if at all possible.

“What we need to do is get the population vaccinated and also get booster vaccines prepared that will be able to deal with these new variants – so buying time… against these new variants is really important.”

He said NHS Test and Trace also becomes “really important” as time goes on, especially when case numbers drop low enough “so that there’s a better chance of sort of stamping on cases as they come out, isolating them.”

Asked if he felt confident that the next release of restrictions would go ahead on May 17, Sir Mark said: “So far, so good. The numbers of case are low, but nevertheless, there are still new cases arising, and it’s why data not dates are what matter.

“It takes time, we’ve only been under the latest relaxations for a few days and so we just need to see over the next few weeks how the numbers stack up, but so far so good and with the good weather, it’s so nice to be optimistic that as long as people are careful, we should be alright for the next phase.”

Education Secretary Gavin Williamson defended the delay in putting India on the travel “red list” to protect against coronavirus.

He told Sky News: “It’s standard practise to give people a sort of short window in order to be able to manage their affairs. It’s the right approach to do, it’s the approach we’ve taken with other countries around the world when they’ve gone onto the red list.

“The government continuously reviews the data, continues to review the information we’re getting from the scientific community in terms of what countries should be put onto the red list, and sadly India has been one of those countries that has had to be added.”

India has been added to the UK’s travel “red list”, health secretary Matt Hancock announced on Monday, as a new Covid-19 variant in the country is causing infections to surge.

Our Travel Correspondents Simon Calder and Cathy Adams explain what this means for travel:

Scottish first minister Nicola Sturgeon is expected to confirm that the next stage of lockdown easing will go ahead in the country later today.

From Monday 26 April, Scotland is set to reopen hospitality, gyms and non-essential retail. Non-essential travel between Scotland, England and Wales could also resume for the first time this year.

If the next stage is confirmed, all local authority areas will move from level four restrictions to level three.

Some restrictions were eased earlier than expected as infection rates fell in Scotland. On 5 April, hairdressers and click and collect services reopened, and outdoor contact sports for 12 to 17-year-olds were allowed to resume.

From 26 April, the government’s roadmap says that up to six people from two households can socialise indoors in a public place, such as a restaurant or pub. Weddings and funerals can take place with up to 50 people and indoor attractions and public buildings can also reopen.

Police in some areas of Britain have “increased the number of crimes they decided not to investigate” during the coronavirus pandemic, a watchdog has revealed.

HM Inspectorate of Constabulary said that some police forces stopped checking on registered sex offenders in person if they were deemed low or medium risk, and were releasing more suspects on bail rather than keeping them in custody.

Our Home Affairs Correspondent Lizzie Dearden reports:

Good morning, and welcome to The Independent’s liveblog following the latest updates in the coronavirus pandemic.