Maharashtra continues to remain the worst-hit state with over 1,92,990 infections. The death count due to the pandemic rose to 8,376 after 198 new deaths reported on Friday, a health department statement said.

The COVID-19 count in Tamil Nadu, the second worst coronavirus hit state in the country, crossed the one lakh-mark yesterday after 4,329 people in the southern state tested positive for the highly infectious virus in a day. With an addition of 64, the state’s death count stood at 1,385, government data said.

Neighbouring Karnataka on Friday reported its biggest single day spike of 1,694 new cases, taking the taking the total number of infections in the state to 19,710. The state also recorded 21 fatalities pushing the number of deaths to 293. The previous biggest single day spike was recorded on July 2 with 1,502 cases.

Delhi — which had reported its highest single-day spike so far of 3,947 cases last week — has COVID-19 tally of over 94,000. The national capital has reported 2,923 COVID-19-related deaths so far.

On Friday, Gujarat recorded its highest single-day spike of 687 new coronavirus positive cases, taking the state’s overall tally beyond the 34,000-mark. This is for the seventh consecutive day that the state has reported 600-plus fresh COVID-19 cases.

Assam has been witnessing the third quickest spike in the number of cases in the country with Guwahati recording nearly 1,900 cases in nine days alone. The northeastern state has 9,799 cases so far. The Assam government has adopted a new model to conduct 10,000 COVID-19 tests daily in Guwahati City. The new model, COVID-19 AG Test, will be a nasal swab test, Minister for Health and Family Welfare Himanta Biswa Sarma said.

Over 11,000 ‘Make In India’ ventilators have been produced and dispatched of which 6,154 have been delivered to hospitals across the country, Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan has said. “The Ministry of Health is also supplying 1.02 lakh oxygen cylinders across India; 72,293 of the oxygen cylinders have been delivered,” he said.

The first made-in-India coronavirus vaccine may be launched by August 15, with the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) fast-tracking efforts to develop “Covaxin” in partnership with Bharat Biotech International Limited. A dozen institutes have been selected for clinical trials of the indigenous COVID-19 vaccine (BBV152 COVID vaccine), the government’s top medical research body has said.

India has the fourth-highest number of coronavirus cases among 10 nations worst-hit by coronavirus. The number of coronavirus cases worldwide has touched 11 million, according to the latest data by the Johns Hopkins University on Saturday. More than 523,613 people have died globally due to the infection, according to the data compiled by the university.

The US notched 57,683 COVID-19 cases in 24 hours Friday, a tally by Johns Hopkins University showed, the third consecutive day with record numbers of new infections. The university also recorded a further 728 fatalities, bringing the total US death count to 129,405.