NEW DELHI: India recorded the highest overnight spike in both COVID-19 cases and deaths on Saturday morning with 7,964 fresh cases and 265 new casualties registered within a 24 hour period.
The total confirmed cases in the country now stand at 1,73,763 while the number of deceased has reached 4,971.
In terms of case fatality rate, the trend however has remained constant and the country as of now has a CFR of 2.86 per cent, which is substantially lower than the global COVID-19 CFR.
A massive spike in the death figure however is worrisome as the number of COVID-19 deaths in India everyday had been hovering between 140-170 for last several days.
It is not clear whether these 265 deaths—the majority of whom were reported from Maharashtra and Delhi- have occurred within 24 hours or have been confirmed during this period.
Of the deaths confirmed overnight, the highest—116 were from Maharashtra alone which now has a staggering 62, 228 cases. In the state, a total of 2,098 people have succumbed to the infection so far.
Delhi, too, reported 82 more deaths within a day taking the total death tally in the state due to the disease to 398. The capital has the highest death per million, nearly 20, due to the disease in the country.
The third-highest number of deaths, 20, were reported from Gujarat which now has 15, 934 confirmed cases.
What can be counted as some solace however is the fact that the infection recovery rate in India has now crossed 47 per cent with 11, 264 patients declared cured since Friday morning. A total of 82,370 patients have now recovered from the infection in the country.