NEW DELHI: India recorded the highest daily jump of 75,760 Covid-19 cases on Thursday morning. This is the steepest rise in the coronavirus cases in a day for any country in the world so far since the pandemic began.
Even more worryingly, with an overnight spike of 1,023 deaths, it was the first time that more than 1,000 infection deaths have been reported two days in a row in India.
A Covid19 world dashboard maintained by USA’s John Hopkins University shows that India, along with Argentina, is among the only two countries—out of total 10 nations including the USA and Brazil, hit the worst in the pandemic-- where the 5 day moving average of new cases is going up.
India now has 33,102,34 total confirmed cases -- just about 4 lakh more confirmed cases than Brazil, the country with the second-highest official coronavirus case tally.
The number of active cases in the country has reached 7,25,991 cases while there have been 60,442 deaths due to the infectious diseases so far as per the government figures.
Of the 1,023 fresh deaths, 295 are from Maharashtra, 133 fro 133 from Karnataka, 118 from Tamil Nadu, 90 from Uttar Pradesh, 81 from Andhra Pradesh, 55 from West Bengal, 41 from Punjab, 19 from Jammu and Kashmir, 7 each from Madhya Pradesh, Delhi and Gujarat 15 from Jharkhand, 14 from Assam, 13 each from Odisha and Kerala, 12 from Rajasthan and 11 each from Bihar and Haryana.
With 1,73,195 cases, Maharashtra has the highest number of active cases and 23,089 have patients succumbed to the disease in the state. In terms of total fatalities, the western state is followed by Tamil Nadu which has seen 6,839 deaths and has 52, 362 active cases.
The second-highest number of active cases --92,208 -- however is in Andhra Pradesh where there have been 3,541 deaths so far.
Experts meanwhile expressed concern at the high number of deaths being reported in India every day.
“By now we know that many Covid-19 cases are out there, and these numbers are just a function of testing in hotspot areas,” said public health researcher Oommen C Kurian. “The real worry is the official number of deaths, which has crossed 1,000 on the second consecutive days for the first time.”
“With even vulnerable people dropping their guard after months of caution, this is the phase where mortality rates could accelerate,” he said. “Active screening of high-risk populations should be able to help reduce mortality outcomes.”
ALSO WATCH: