NEW DELHI: India now has the third highest Covid-19 caseload in the world after overtaking Russia on Sunday, even as new infections in the country rose to another record high of nearly 25,000 during the day. India also recorded 421 new deaths from the virus, taking the toll to over 2,300 in the five days of this month alone.
Total Covid-19 cases recorded in India were 6,97,887 late on Sunday, as per data collated from state governments. During the course of the day, the count went past Russia’s current caseload of 6,81,251, as per the Worldometers website. With this, only the US and Brazil have recorded higher Covid-19 cases than India.
As many as 24,912 new cases were detected in India on Sunday, taking the count in the five days of July so far to over 1 lakh. June, which was so far the worst month of the pandemic in the country, had witnessed a little over 4 lakh cases. Fresh cases have touch record highs on each of the past four days, starting with 22,045 infections reported on July 2.

With the daily tally of infections in Assam (1,202 new cases) and Uttar Pradesh (1,155) crossing 1,000 for the first time, a record seven states reported cases in four figures on Sunday. As usual, Maharashtra had the highest count of 6,555, its second-highest tally after new cases on Saturday had crossed 7,000.
Apart from Assam and UP, Karnataka (1,925 fresh cases), Andhra Pradesh (998), Bengal (895), Gujarat (725) and Rajasthan (632) were among the states that recorded their highest single-day jump in cases.
Scaling a new high, Uttar Pradesh reported 1,155 new infections in the past 24 hours. With this, the total number of Covid cases in the state reached 28,061. Of the 75 districts in the state, 26 recorded cases in double digits. Six districts in the Meerut division, including Ghaziabad (182), Gautam Budh Nagar (118), Bulandshahr (37), Meerut (32), Baghpat (25) and Hapur (25), accounted for over one-third (419) of the total cases.
Assam registered an increase of 1,202 Covid-19 cases, including 782 in Kamrup (metro), late on Saturday night, in the biggest spike thus far, prompting the state government to restrict functioning of several government departments.
“In the biggest spike ever, Assam on July four reported 1202 cases… Time for all of us to be vigilant,” Assam minister Himanta Biswa Sarma tweeted.
In Tamil Nadu, the number of new infections dropped below 2,000 cases for the second day in a row in Chennai, but the number of people testing positive for Covid-19 in other districts is on the rise.
On Sunday, Tamil Nadu reported 4,150 new cases. Of this, 56 % were from Chennai (1,713) and its three neighbouring districts — Kancheepuram (152), Tiruvallur (209) and Chengalpet (274). Two weeks ago, these four districts together contributed 72% of total cases in Tamil Nadu.
Gujarat in 24 hours ending 5 pm on Sunday recorded yet another highest daily tally of 725 cases — the sixth high registered in the past seven days – taking the total tally to 36,123. An analysis of the daily cases reveals that in the past seven days, the cases rose by 16%. In fact, the past week recorded 4,726 positive cases at the average of 675 cases daily – which is 13% of the total positive cases of Gujarat so far.
The state also recorded 18 deaths, taking the state’s death toll to 1945. The deaths included nine from Ahmedabad, six from Surat and one each from Jamnagar, Gandhinagar and Kheda.
Telangana recorded seven deaths and 1,590 new cases of Covid-19, even as authorities said the virus was again spreading in districts near Hyderabad. With the latest numbers, the coronavirus caseload now stands at 23,902, the seventh-highest among all states, while the death toll rose to 295.
State health authorities are concentrating on Medchal and Ranga Reddy districts, which have seen a huge jump in cases.