India Records Highest Single-Day COVID-19 Spike at Over 18,500 Cases

New Delhi: Six days after it recorded four lakh infections, India's COVID-19 tally raced past five lakh on Saturday with the highest single-day surge of 18,552 cases, while the death toll climbed to 15,685, according to Union Health Ministry data.

The COVID-19 caseload zoomed to 5,08,953, while 384 fatalities were recorded in the past 24 hours, the updated figure at 8 a.m showed.

It took 110 days for coronavirus infection in the country to reach one lakh while just 39 days more to go past the five lakh-mark on June 27.

This was the fourth consecutive day when coronavirus infection increased by more than 15,000 fourth day while there has been a surge of 3,18,418 infections from June 1 till 27. 

The number of active cases stands at 1,97, 387 while 2,95,880 people have recovered and one patient has migrated.

"Thus, around 58.13% patients have recovered so far," an official said.

The total number of confirmed cases include foreigners.  

According to the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), cumulative total of 79,96,707 samples have been tested up to June 26 with 2,20,479 samples being tested on Friday, the highest in a day since the beginning of the pandemic.

Of the 384 new deaths reported till Saturday morning, 175 were in Maharashtra, 63 in Delhi, 46 in Tamil Nadu, 19 in Uttar Pradesh, 18 in Gujarat, 13 in Haryana, 12 in Andhra Pradesh, 10 each in West Bengal and Karnataka, seven in Telangana, four in Madhya Pradesh, two in Punjab, one each in Jammu and Kashmir, Chhattisgarh, Bihar, Rajasthan and Uttarakhand.

Of the total 15,685 deaths reported so far, Maharashtra tops the tally with 7,106 deaths, followed by Delhi with 2,492 deaths, Gujarat with 1,771, Tamil Nadu with 957, Uttar Pradesh with 630, West Bengal with 616, Madhya Pradesh with 546, Rajasthan with 380 and Telangana with 237 deaths.

The COVID-19 death toll reached 211 in Haryana, 180 in Karnataka, 148 in Andhra Pradesh, 122 in Punjab, 91 in Jammu and Kashmir, 58 in Bihar, 37 in Uttarakhand, 22 in Kerala and 17 in Odisha.

Chhattisgarh has registered 13 deaths, Jharkhand 12,  Assam, Puducherry and Himachal Pradesh nine each, Chandigarh six, Goa two and Meghalaya, Tripura, Ladakh and Arunachal Pradesh have reported one fatality each, according to the Health Ministry.

More than 70% deaths took place due to comorbidities, it said.

Maharashtra has reported the highest number of cases at 1,52,765 followed by Delhi at 77,240, Tamil Nadu at 74,622, Gujarat at 30,095, Uttar Pradesh at 20,943, Rajasthan at 16,660 and West Bengal at 16,190, the ministry data stated.

The number of COVID-19 cases has gone up to 12,884 in Haryana, 12,798 in Madhya Pradesh, 12,349 in Telangana, 11,489 in Andhra Pradesh and 11,005 in Karnataka.

It has risen to 8,716 in Bihar, 6,762 in Jammu and Kashmir, 6,607 in Assam and 6,180 in Odisha. Punjab has reported 4,957 novel coronavirus infections so far, while Kerala has 3,876 cases.

A total of 2,725 people have been infected by the virus in Uttarakhand, 2,545 in Chhattisgarh, 2,290 in Jharkhand, 1,325 in Tripura, 1,075 in Manipur, 1,039 in Goa, 946 in Ladakh and 864 in Himachal Pradesh.

Puducherry has recorded 502 COVID-19 cases, Chandigarh has 425, Nagaland has 371 and Arunachal Pradesh has 172.

Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu together have reported 163 COVID-19 cases.

Mizoram has 145 cases, Sikkim has 86, Andaman and Nicobar Islands has registered 72 infections so far while Meghalaya has recorded 47 cases.

"Our figures are being reconciled with the ICMR," the ministry said, adding that 8,023 cases are being reassigned to states.

State-wise distribution is subject to further verification and reconciliation, it added.