India registered a record number of fresh Covid-19 cases on Wednesday, crossing the 70,000-mark for the first time since the outbreak of the pandemic. With 70,101 new cases, the country’s tally crossed the 28-lakh mark at 28,33,015. With 978 fresh deaths, the country’s cumulative toll reached 53,929.
The huge surge came on the back of a record number of cases in Maharashtra — which became the first state in the country to cross the 13,000-mark with 13,165 people testing positive for the virus — as well as seven other states registering their highest daily peak of fresh Covid patients. Maharashtra’s previous highest peak of fresh cases was recorded on August 8 with 12,822 cases.
The active Covid cases in the country now stand at 6,88,162. A total of 20,90,924 patients have recovered from the virus – which translates into a recovery rate of 73.8%.
In the last 19 days of August alone, Maharashtra has added 2.07 lakh new cases and of these only 19,331, or 9.3%, were from Mumbai. In July, it took the state 26 days to add two lakh cases, indicating the rapid spread of the infection in other areas of Maharashtra. Worryingly for the state, the active caseload has now gone up to 1.6 lakh, after hovering under the 1.5 lakh range for the last 30 days. Maharashtra also registered 346 news deaths, taking the overall fatalities beyond the 21,000-mark to 21,033. Mumbai accounted for 46 of the 346 fatalities on Wednesday.
After Maharashtra, Karnataka accounted for maximum fatalities with 126 deaths, followed by Tamil Nadu with 116 casualties. Besides Maharashtra, the other states/UT that registered a record number of fresh infections were Kerala (2333 cases), UP (5156), Jharkhand (1266), Punjab (1693), Haryana (994), Chhattisgarh (759) and J&K (708).
Kerala not only registered its biggest single-day surge in fresh cases but crossed the 2,000-mark for the first time, underlining the rapid spread of the disease in the state, in sharp contrast to the initial weeks into the pandemic when the state government had earned praise for its preventive measures. The state’s caseload breached the 50,000-mark at 50,231.
Andhra Pradesh crossed the 3 million Covid-19 tests mark even as the state reported 9,742 new cases. Uttar Pradesh (39.6 lakh), Tamil Nadu (38.4 lakh) and Maharashtra (32.6 lakh) are the only other states that have conducted over 3 million Covid-19 tests. Andhra’s toll increased to 2,906 with 86 more deaths.
Other states that recorded casualties in double figures on Wednesday were UP (53 deaths), West Bengal (53), Gujarat (17), Rajasthan (12), Odisha (10), Haryana (10), Madhya Pradesh (18), Punjab (24), J&K (11), Jharkhand (13) and Uttarakhand (14).
