India on Thursday reported 69,652 infections in the last 24 hours – the biggest single-day spike in Coronavirus cases so far since Kerala, on January 30, reported the country’s first known case of the deadlt pandemic. As many as 977 fatalities were also reported in the same time period.

With this, the Coronavirus tally in the country has risen to 28,36,926 including 6,86,395 active cases, 20,96,665 cured and 53,866 deaths.

According to the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), as many as 9,18,470 samples were tested on Wednesday, taking the total to 3,26,61,252 samples being tested till date.

India remains the third worst hit after the United States and Brazil in terms of cases.

However, with over 20.96 lakh people having recovered from COVID-19 coronavirus, the recovery rate currently stands at 73.90 per cent. According to the Ministry of Health, the positivity rate has come down below 8 per cent.

Notably, the case fatality rate, which is the proportion of people who die from the disease among individuals diagnosed, has dropped to 1.91 per cent.

As far as the death toll is concerned, the country had registered its first fatality linked to Coronavirus on March 13 and crossed the 25,000-mark on July 17. The next 25,000 deaths were logged in the span of a month.

Maharashtra remains the worst-hit state with a total of 6,28,642 cases and 21,033 deaths, followed by Tamil Nadu (3,55,449), Andhra Pradesh (3,16,003), Karnataka (2,49,590), Uttar Pradesh (1,67,510) and Delhi (1,56,139).

A day after reporting the highest Coronavirus deaths, Maharashtra on Wednesday recorded a new peak of cases. The state recorded a high of 13,165 new cases — surpassing the previous high of 12,822 patients on August 8 — and 346 more fatalities.

Meanwhile, the Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) on Wednesday gave approval for opening of hotels and weekly markets in the city.

The decision was taken in a meeting of DDMA which was also attended by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal through video conference. The proposal to open gyms was not approved in the meeting headed by Lt Governor Anil Baijal. The LG said gyms can be allowed to open in the coming days. The weekly markets will be first opened on trial basis to assess the situation on the ground, the sources added. Hotels, weekly markets and gyms were closed in the city with the announcement of the lockdown in March in the wake of the Coronavirus pandemic.

Globally, the overall number of Coronavirus cases has topped 22.3 million, while the deaths crossed 786,000, according to the Johns Hopkins University.

As of Thursday morning, the total number of cases stood at 22,322,208 and the fatalities rose to 786,185, the University’s Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) revealed in its latest update.

The US accounts for the world’s highest number of cases and deaths at 5,527,306 and 173,114, respectively, according to the CSSE.

Brazil comes in the second place with 3,456,652 Coronavirus cases and 111,100 deaths.