NEW DELHI: With India reporting 86,432 fresh COVID-19 cases, taking the total number past 4 million, the country has registered more cases in a day than the total coronavirus cases reported in mainland China, where the pandemic outbreak began.
China has reported 85,112 confirmed cases so far. India is also set to overtake Brazil as the second worst hit country after the US. It has only 68,622 cases lesser than the Latin American country and could leap ahead by Sunday morning. On Friday, India also witnessed 1,089 deaths due to the infectious disease, taking the total toll to 69,561.
The total number of active COVID cases stands at 8,46,395, as per the official figures. Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh and Delhi account for 70 per cent of the total deaths in the country.
These states also continue to report the highest number of cases daily. On Saturday, the Centre exhorted Maharashtra, Andhra and Karnataka to focus on undertaking aggressive measures to break the chain of transmission and to ensure that the mortality is kept below 1 per cent.
The three states have been advised to proactively ensure higher testing, effective clinical management to lower fatality and save lives along with efficient monitoring at various levels. These states account for about 46 per cent of active cases reported nationally in the last 24 hours.
Maharashtra alone accounts for 22 per cent of all active cases reported in the last 24 hours. Similarly, these three states account for 52 per cent of all COVID deaths reported across the country in the last 24 hours.
Maharashtra alone accounted for 35 per cent of all deaths reported in the last 24 hours. The Union home and health ministries asked authorities in these states to optimally utilise RT-PCR testing facilities, to strengthen their door to door active case search and to protect their healthcare workers.