NEW DELHI: The Covid-19 caseload in the country neared 4 lakh on Saturday morning with the number of infections detected within a day crossing 14,000-mark for the first time.
A total of 14, 516 new cases were added on Friday taking the country’s tally of confirmed novel coronavirus cases to 3,95,048.
Also, in the 24 hour period, India's death toll mounted to 12,948 as 375 more deaths were reported across the country. Apart from the deaths, the total confirmed cases include 168,269 active patients and 213,831 others who have been declared as “cured”.
Sources in the Union health ministry said that the sharp rise in the daily cases are a result of intensified testing—using antigen-based testing kits in combination with RTPCR tests in the worst affected states such as Delhi over the last few days.
Since the beginning of this month, India has recorded more than 2 lakh infection cases with Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Delhi, Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh among the top five states that have seen the steepest rise in the pandemic curve.
The case fatality rate due to the disease which was 2.9 % until a few days back has risen to 3.3 % in the wake of a steady rise in daily deaths.
Of the 375 new deaths reported in a day, 42 were from Maharashtra, 66 from Delhi, 41 from Tamil Nadu, 27 from Gujarat, 23 from Uttar Pradesh, 11 from West Bengal, 10 each from Rajasthan, Karnataka, and Haryana, nine each from Madhya Pradesh and Punjab.
Six of the infection-related deaths were reported from Bihar, 4 each from Andhra Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir, and 3 from Telangana.
India is the fourth worst-hit nation by the pandemic after the US, Brazil, and Russia as per a global Covid 19 dashboard maintained by the Johns Hopkins Universit which also shows that India is at the eighth position in terms of the death toll so far.
Of the total 12,948 Covid-19 deaths yet, Maharashtra accounts for the highest 5,893 fatalities followed by Delhi with 2,035 deaths, Gujarat with 1,618, Tamil Nadu with 666, West Bengal with 529 and Madhya Pradesh with 495 deaths.