On Tuesday, India recorded more than 1 million COVID-19 cases and 25,000 deaths, crossing the twin milestones during a massive surge in the coronavirus pandemic in recent days. The country has added above 36,000 fresh cases and 684 deaths in the day, the highest in a single day.

India is the third country to record 1 million COVID-19 cases and the 8th to register more than 25,000 deaths after the US and Brazil. India’s caseload has climbed from 8 lakh to 10 lakh (1 million) only in 6 days, as compared to 9 days when moving from 6 lakh to 8 lakh cases and 11 days for the previous 2 lakh cases. Also, the death count has risen from 20,000 to 25,000 in only 10 days. Active cases have increased by almost 12,000 and around 23,000 patients were recovered during the day.

The highest single-day rise in the COVID-19 death count with 684 fatalities were reported from across the country. Maharashtra led the count with 266 deaths, whereas Karnataka saw a huge spike in mortalities with 104 deaths. Karnataka has become the third state, after Maharashtra and Delhi, to record 100 deaths in a single day.

Also, the death toll was high in Tamil Nadu (69 deaths), Delhi (58 deaths), Andhra Pradesh (40 deaths), Uttar Pradesh (34 deaths), Bengal (23 deaths) and J&K (16 deaths).

Breaking all the earlier records, on Thursday, almost 11 states recorded their highest single-day surge in cases, led by Maharashtra that recorded a massive 8,641 fresh infections. Tamil Nadu (4,549 cases), Karnataka (4,169 cases), Andhra Pradesh (2,593 cases), Uttar Pradesh (2,083 cases), Bengal (1,690 cases), Bihar (1,690 cases), Kerala (722 cases), J&K (490 cases), Jharkhand (381 cases) and Chhattisgarh (218 cases).

Mumbai recorded an upsurge in the number of cases as compared to the last few days, adding 1,476 fresh cases. At present, Mumbai has 97,950 cases. Out of the 266 deaths in the state, 56 deaths were reported from Mumbai. A civic official said that from the time of the easing of the lockdown, a majority of new cases had been reported from non-slum pockets. Mumbai Metropolitan Region added twice the number of cases and deaths as compared to Mumbai.

Chennai continued to record decreasing numbers of cases with 1,157 cases being detected on Thursday, even as new cases reached a new high in Tamil Nadu. An expert said that technically, coronavirus is no longer an epidemic in the city. If Chennai manages to prevent any new cases then they could cure all patients by a couple of weeks.

Telangana, too recorded 10 deaths and 1,676 fresh COVID-19 cases on Thursday, taking the total count beyond the 40,000 mark. Also, Telangana has set a new record in COVID-19 testing with 14,027 samples being tested on Thursday. The officials said that about 18.8% of the samples are tested positive.

Source: ET Health world