NEW DELHI: India has recorded more than 1 million Covid-19 cases and 25,000 deaths from the virus, crossing the twin milestones on Tuesday amid a massive surge in the pandemic in recent days. The country added more than 36,000 new cases and 684 deaths during the day, both by far the highest in a single day.
India is the third country, after the US and Brazil, to log 1 million Covid-19 cases and the eighth to register over 25,000 deaths. India’s caseload has risen from 8 lakh to 10 lakh (1 million) in just six days, as compared with nine while moving from 6 lakh to 8 lakh and 11 for the previous 2 lakh cases. Likewise, the death toll has risen from 20,000 to 25,000 in just 10 days.
On Tuesday, India recorded 36,139 fresh infections, over 3,600 more than the previous peak of 32,498 reported just a day earlier, as per data collated from state governments. With this, India’s Covid-19 caseload rose to 10,04,806. Active cases rose by nearly 12,000 while around 23,000 patients were declared cured during the day.
Tuesday also saw the highest single-day rise in the Covid-19 death toll, with 684 fatalities reported from across the country. The previous highest toll of 616 (discounting 2,003, mostly back-dated death reported on June 16) was recorded on Wednesday. While Maharashtra as usual led the count with 266 deaths — its second-highest 24-hour toll so far — Karnataka saw a huge spike in fatalities, adding 104 to its toll. It became the third state, after Maharashtra and Delhi, to register 100 deaths in a single day.
The day’s toll was also high in Tamil Nadu (69), Delhi (58), Andhra Pradesh (40), Uttar Pradesh (34), Bengal (23) and J&K (16).
In what would be another record, at least 11 states reported their highest single-day surge in cases, led by Maharashtra, which recorded a massive 8,641 new infections. The others were Tamil Nadu (4,549), Karnataka (4,169), Andhra Pradesh (2,593), Uttar Pradesh (2,083), Bengal (1,690), Bihar (also 1,690), Kerala (722), J&K (490), Jharkhand (381 since Wednesday night) and Chhattisgarh (218).
Amid a major spike in the pandemic in the state, Karnataka became the third state to log 4,000 or more cases in a day, nearly 1,000 more than Wednesday’s number. The state also crossed 50,000 cases and 1,000 deaths.
Breaking all previous records, Maharashtra on Thursday added 8,641 new Covid-19 cases, its highest single-day addition since the pandemic broke. The previous highest was 8,139 cases reported on July 11. The state’s case tally on Thursday reached 2,84,281, very close to the 3 lakh mark. The state also reported 266 deaths, the second-highest toll for a day so far, taking the total toll past 11,000.
Mumbai reported an increase in the number of cases compared to the last few days, adding 1,476 new ones. Mumbai now has 97,950 cases. Of the 266 deaths in the state, 56 were reported from Mumbai, which contributed 21% of the daily addition. A civic official said since the easing of the lockdown, a bulk of new infections were coming from non-slum pockets. Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) added twice the number of cases and deaths than Mumbai.
Even as fresh cases rose to a new high in Tamil Nadu, Chennai continued to report declining numbers. As Chennai detected 1,157 cases on Thursday, a mathematical model suggested that the infection was no more an epidemic in the city. “Technically, it is no longer an epidemic in the city. If Chennai manages to prevent any new clusters from increasing the growth rate again, we could end up with all patients recovered by a couple of weeks,” an expert said.
Telangana recorded 10 deaths and 1,676 new Covid-19 cases on Thursday, taking the total tally of cases beyond the 40,000 mark. Telangana also set a new record in Covid-19 testing with 14,027 samples tested on Thursday, the single-day highest so far. With the latest figures, about 18.8% of the samples tested have been positive, officials said.