India reports 93,249 Covid-19 cases, highest daily spike in over 6 months

New Delhi: India recorded the biggest one-day surge since September 19 last year with more than 93,000 cases of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19), according to the Union ministry of health and family welfare’s data on Sunday morning, taking the country’s tally to past 12.48 million. There were 93,249 infections and 513 Covid-19 related deaths in the last 24 hours, the health ministry’s dashboard showed at 8am. With this, the country’s tally has risen to 12,485,509 and its death toll to 164,623.

India, the third-worst country hit by the pandemic, on Saturday reported 89,129 Covid-19 cases in a day, the highest daily rise in around six-and-half-months. The surge in coronavirus disease cases reported on Saturday was the highest since September 20 last year—92,605 infections were recorded in 24 hours on that day. The 714 fatalities in a day were also the highest since October 21.

The number of people, who have recuperated from the viral disease, surged to 11,629,289, the health ministry data’s also showed. The national recovery rate has further dropped to 93.14 per cent.

The number of daily Covid-19 cases peaked in September last year with 97,894 infections recorded on the 17th day of the month. India began witnessing a gradual decline in cases of the coronavirus disease after that.

The health ministry said on Saturday that eight states, including Maharashtra, Karnataka, Chhattisgarh, Delhi, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Madhya Pradesh, have shown a steep rise in the daily cases of the coronavirus disease. The ministry said that 81.42% of the new cases are reported from these eight states. Maharashtra reported the highest daily cases, followed by Karnataka and Chhattisgarh, it added.

Maharashtra, Karnataka, Chhattisgarh, Kerala and Punjab cumulatively accounted for 77.3% of the active cases in the country on Saturday, the ministry said. “Maharashtra alone accounts for nearly 60% (59.36%) of the total active caseload of the country,” it added.

Authorities in several states have clamped stringent restrictions, including night curfews to shutting schools and other educational institutions, to battle the surge during the ongoing second wave of the pandemic. In Maharashtra, chief minister Uddhav Thackeray has warned of a lockdown if the Covid-19 cases continued to rise.