India records 507 deaths in single day, cases near 6L-mark
New Delhi: India on Wednesday registered the highest single-day COVID-19 deaths at 507 with Maharashtra, Delhi and Tamil Nadu accounting for over 70 per cent of the fatalities. There is no relief in terms of the rise in new COVID-19 cases as the country recorded 18,653 new infections in the last 24 hours taking the total tally close to the 6 lakh mark.
According to the data updated by states, total confirmed cases of COVID-19 has breached the 6 lakh-mark and total the tally mounted to 6,04,808, which is just 50,000 less than Russia's total cases of 6,54,405.
Notably, it's for the fifth consecutive day that Coronavirus infections have increased by more than 18,000.
Out of total 5,85,493 confirmed cases, 3,47,979 people have recovered, while 2,20,114 are active cases, which means 59.43 per cent patients have recovered and active cases stand at 37.59 per cent.
Meanwhile, in an important development, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and Union Health Secretary Preeti Sudan has asked the states to allow laboratories to test symptomatic individuals for the virus infection and do away with the mandatory prescription from a doctor to undergo a COVID-19 test. The ICMR tested a total of 88,26,585 samples, including 2,17,931 in the last 24 hours.
Of the 507 deaths reported in the last 24 hours, 245 are from Maharashtra, 62 from Delhi, 60 from Tamil Nadu, 25 from Uttar Pradesh, 20 from Karnataka, 19 from Gujarat, 15 from West Bengal, eight each from Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, seven each from Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, six each from Jammu and Kashmir and Punjab, five from Bihar, four from Haryana, etc.
Of the total 17,400 deaths reported so far, Maharashtra accounted for the highest 7,855 fatalities followed by Delhi with 2,742 deaths, Gujarat with 1,846, Tamil Nadu with 1,201, Uttar Pradesh with 697, West Bengal with 668, Madhya Pradesh with 572, Rajasthan with 413 and Telangana with 260 deaths.
As per the Health Ministry's data, among the states, Maharashtra has reported the highest number of cases at 1,74,761, followed by Tamil Nadu at 90,167, Delhi at 87,360, Gujarat at 32,557, Uttar Pradesh at 23,492, West Bengal at 18,559 and Rajasthan at 18,014.
The number of COVID-19 cases has gone up to 16,339 in Telangana, 15,242 in Karnataka, 14,595 in Andhra Pradesh, 14,548 in Haryana, and 13,593 in Madhya Pradesh.
More than 3.86 lakh people in India were found infected with novel Coronavirus in the month of June alone, putting the country amongst the four worst-affected nations in the world. Only the United States, Brazil and Russia have more cases.
India had 1.98 lakh confirmed cases of the disease on May 31 and in the next one month, this number has risen to 5.85 lakh. The last two lakh cases were added in just 12 days.