India on Saturday crossed 3 lakh-mark as it reported the highest single-day spike of 11,458 new Coronavirus cases taking the total tally to 3,08,993. As many as 386 deaths were recorded in the last 24 hours taking the total number of fatalities to 8,884, according to the Ministry of Health.
Of the total cases, 1,45,779 are active cases and 1,54,330 people have been cured.
India’s recovery rate is now 49.9 per cent. The recoveries continue to be higher than active cases of novel coronavirus. More new recoveries than new active cases reported in Bihar, Chhattishgarh, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Meghalaya, Odisha, Telangana and Uttarakhand. Also, the doubling time of Coronavirus cases in India has improved to 17.4 days currently from 15.4 days a couple of weeks ago, the Union health ministry said on Friday.
Meanwhile, India is ranked fouth globally in the total cases of novel Coronavirus reported after Russia (5,10,761), Brazil (8,28,810) and the US (20,46,643).
Maharashtra remains the worst-hit state with with 1,01,141, followed by Tamil Nadu with 40,698 and Delhi with 36,824.
Delhi recorded 2,137 fresh coronavirus cases on Friday, the highest single-day spike. As many as 71 fatalities were reported in the last 24 hours, according to the latest Delhi health department bulletin. This is the first time when over 2,000 cases have been reported in a day in Delhi. The previous highest spike in fresh cases — 1,877– was recorded on June 11.
The death toll due to Coronavirus has climbed to 1,214 in the city.
The AAP government expects around 5.5 lakh cases in Delhi by July 31.
Earlier on Friday, the Supreme Court came down heavily on the Delhi government over its handling of dead bodies in hospitals stating it reflected a “very sorry state of affairs” in the national capital amid a spike in Coronavirus cases.
Citing media reports on how bodies lie in hospitals stacked against each other, a three-judge bench of the Supreme Court observed that lack of beds in hospitals is an issue of concern.
The bench termed the situation in Delhi as “horrendous, horrific and pathetic” and reproached the Arvind Kejriwal led-government for patients being placed alongside stacks of dead bodies in the hospitals.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to chair an interaction with Chief Ministers of various states next week to discuss the coronavirus situation in India amid an alarming spike in cases and deaths in recent days as relaxations were rolled out.
The global number of COVID-19 cases has increased to over 7.6 million, while the death toll surged past 425,000, according to the Johns Hopkins University.
As of Saturday morning, the overall number of cases stood at 7,632,377, while the deaths increased to 425,385, the University’s Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) revealed in its latest update.
The World Health Organization (WHO) said that it is concerned that many countries, particularly the global south, are still on the upswing of the COVID-19 pandemic, and again called for global solidarity to overcome difficulties for “over 100 years.”