India logs highest daily spike of over 1.26L cases

New Delhi: India on Thursday registered a record single-day spike of 1,26,789 new Covid-19 cases that pushed its infection tally to 1,29,28,574, while the number of active cases too went upwards to breach the 9 lakh mark again.

According to Union Health Ministry's data, the death toll due to the disease in the country also increased to 1,66,862, which includes 685 new fatalities being reported in the last 24 hours.

Registering a steady increase for the 29th day in a row, the count of active cases has gone up to 9,10,319, which is 7.04 per cent of the total infections and the country's recovery rate has further dropped to 91.67 per cent, the ministry said, adding that with 59,258 new recoveries, the number of people who have recovered increased to 1,18,51,393, while the case fatality rate has further dropped to 1.29 per cent.

Among the states, Maharashtra has recorded highest number of new cases amounting to 59,907 in the last 24 hours pushing the total tally of the state to 31,73,261, while new fatalities have been reported in a single day and 30,296 patients have recovered in the last 24 hours.

The Covid-19 situation is also worsening in Chhattisgarh as the state has reported 10,310 new cases in a single day taking the total tally of cases to 3,96,579. Other states that have reported higher cases are Karnataka, which has reported 6,976 new cases, followed by Uttar Pradesh with 6,002 cases, Delhi (5,506), Tamil Nadu (3,986), etc.

With 34,73,083 vaccine doses given in a single day till 8 pm on Thursday, the cumulative number of shots administered in the country has crossed 9.40 crore till the 83rd day of the nationwide drive.

Of the total 9,40,96,689 vaccine doses administered till Thursday, 89,74,122 were given to healthcare workers (HCWs) who have taken the first dose and 54,48,206 HCWs have taken the second dose.

"There are 98,09,525 frontline workers who have been administered the first dose while 45,41,636 FLWs have been given the second dose. The first dose was given to 2,59,55,762 beneficiaries belonging to over 45 years old to 59 years old, while the second dose given to 5,20,339 beneficiaries of such age group and 3,74,95,435 beneficiaries above 60 years have taken the first dose and 13,51,664 of such age group given the second dose," the ministry's provisional data said.

Meanwhile, NCP president Sharad Pawar on Thursday said the Centre has assured to help Maharashtra where the COVID-19 situation is currently "grim".

Maharashtra, the worst COVID-19 affected state in India, which is simultaneously battling an unprecedented outbreak and a shortage of preventive vaccines has been provided 17 lakh additional doses.

Maharashtra Health minister Rajesh Tope said the Centre increased COVID-19 vaccine doses from 7 lakh to 17 lakh on Thursday.

Delhi recorded 7,437 fresh COVID-19 cases on Thursday, the highest single-day surge this year, while 24 more people died due to the infection, taking the death toll to 11,157, according to the city's Health Department. This is also the first time that over 7,000 cases have been reported in a day this year. The daily case count for the past two days was also above 5,000.