India saw its biggest spike in Coronavirus cases and deaths on Saturday as 7,964 new infections and 265 fatalities were reported in the last 24 hours.
With the latest jump, the total number of cases in the country has climbed to 1,73,763 with 4,971 succumbing to the deadly infection.
Of the total cases, 86,422 are active while 82,370 patents have been cured.
This is the second consecutive day that India has reported over 7,000 cases in a single day and eighth day when more than 6,000 patients were logged in 24 hours.
Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Telangana and Assam have contributed to the highest single-day jump.
Maharashtra remains the worst hit with a total of 62,228 cases of which 33,133 are active and 2,098 persons have succumbed to the disease.
Tamil Nadu is the next worst hit with the number of cases climbing to 20,246 with 154 deaths and Delhi comes third with 17,386 cases.
Meanwhile, Maharashtra also has the highest number of deaths followed by Gujarat (980) and Delhi with 398 fatalities.
Kerala which had almost flattened the curve, is witnessing a surge in the number of COVID-19 cases. There are now 1,150 cases of which 577 are active, 565 have recovered while eight have died.
Cases have spiked in the North East too, with Assam having 895 active cases.
With this massive spike in Coronavirus infections, India has emerged as the ninth worst-hit country in the world by pandemic.
The only matter of relief for India is that it has shown a 42.88 per cent recovery.
Meanwhile, on Friday, India also surpassed China’s reported toll of 4,638.
India is currently in the fourth phase of lockdown which will end on May 31. Cases spiked at a record rate during lockdown 4.0 that allowed much relaxations.
Meanwhile, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has written to the World Health Organization, expressing its disagreement with the global health body’s advisory against the use of anti-malaria Hydroxychloroquine in treating Coronavirus patients.
The ICMR, in the letter, cited the difference in dosage administered to patients and said that international dosages are four times higher than Indian trials.
Even as several countries, including India and the United States have seen Hydroxychloroquine as a potential cure for the Coronavirus infection, the World Health Organization (WHO) has decided to “temporarily” suspend clinical trial of the anti-malaria drug on COVID-19 patients.