India Inches Closer to Becoming 3rd Worst-hit Country With Spike of Nearly 25k Covid-19 Cases

With a record single-day surge of 24,850 coronavirus infections and 613 fatalities, India's COVID-19 caseload zoomed to 6,73,165, while the death toll climbed to 19,268 on Sunday, according to the Union Health Ministry data.

Recording over 20,000 coronavirus infections for the third consecutive day, India is set to overtake Russia's tally. According to the Johns Hopkins University, which has been compiling COVID-19 data from all over the world, India is behind Russia with 399 cases.

India is currently the fourth worst-hit nation by the pandemic after the US, Brazil and Russia and is at the eighth position in terms of the death toll. Maharashtra crossed the grim milestone of two lakh COVID-19 cases, recording a single-day increase of 7,074 infections, the Health Ministry's updated data at 8 am showed.

Tamil Nadu registered 4,280 cases in the past 24 hours, while Delhi, Telangana, Karnataka, Assam and Bihar added a total of 7,935 COVID-19 cases in a day. These seven states have contributed to around 78 per cent of the singe-day spike. With a steady rise, the number of recoveries stands at 4,09,082 while one patient has migrated. There are 2,44,814 active cases of coronavirus infections presently in the country, the data showed.

"Thus, around 60.77 per cent of patients have recovered so far," an official said. The total number of confirmed cases include foreigners. According to the ICMR, a cumulative total of 97,89,066 samples have been tested up to July 4 with 2,48,934 samples being tested on Saturday.

Of the 613 deaths reported in the last 24 hours, 295 are from Maharashtra, 81 from Delhi, 65 from Tamil Nadu, 42 from Karnataka, 24 from Uttar Pradesh, 21 from Gujarat, 19 from West Bengal, 12 from Andhra Pradesh, nine from Bihar, eight from Jammu and Kashmir, seven from Rajasthan, five each in Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Punjab and Telangana, two each from Goa and Jharkhand and one from Himachal Pradesh.

Of the total 19,268 deaths reported so far, Maharashtra accounted for the highest 8,671 fatalities followed by Delhi with 3,004 deaths, Gujarat with 1,925, Tamil Nadu with 1,450, Uttar Pradesh with 773, West Bengal with 736, Madhya Pradesh with 598, Rajasthan with 447 and Karnataka with 335.

The COVID-19 death toll reached 288 in Telangana,260 in Haryana, 218 in Andhra Pradesh, 162 in Punjab, 127 in Jammu and Kashmir, 89 in Bihar, 42 in Uttarakhand, 34 in Odisha and 25 in Kerala.

Jharkhand has registered 17 deaths, Chhattisgarh and Assam 14 each, Puducherry 12, Himachal Pradesh 11, Chandigarh and Goa six each and Meghalaya, Tripura, Ladakh and Arunachal Pradesh have reported one fatality each, according to the Health Ministry.

More than 70 per cent deaths took place due to comorbidities, it said. Maharashtra has reported the highest number of cases at 2,00,064 followed by Tamil Nadu at 1,07,001, Delhi at 97,200, Gujarat at 35,312, Uttar Pradesh at 26,554, Telangana at 22,312 and Karnataka at 21,549, according to the ministry data.

The number of COVID-19 cases has gone up to 21,231 in West Bengal, 19,532 in Rajasthan, 17,699 in Andhra Pradesh, 16,548 in Haryana and 14,604 in Madhya Pradesh. It has risen to 11,700 in Bihar, 10,668 in Assam, 8,601 in Odisha and 8,246 in Jammu and Kashmir. Punjab has reported 6,109 novel coronavirus infections so far, while Kerala has 5,204 cases.

A total of 3,161 have been infected by the virus in Chhattisgarh, 3,093 in Uttarakhand, 2,739 in Jharkhand, 1,684 in Goa, 1,546 in Tripura, 1,325 in Manipur, 1,046 in Himachal Pradesh and 1,005 in Ladakh.

Puducherry has recorded 802 COVID-19 cases, Nagaland 563, Chandigarh 460 and Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu together have reported 271 COVID-19 cases.

Arunachal Pradesh reported 259 cases, Mizoram has 164 cases, Andaman and Nicobar Islands has 119, Sikkim has registered 103 infections so far, while Meghalaya has recorded 62 cases.

"Our figures are being reconciled with the ICMR," the ministry said, adding that 4,629 cases are being reassigned to states. State-wise distribution is subject to further verification and reconciliation, it added.

(With inputs from PTI)