Meanwhile, India recorded 59,117 new cases on Thursday, the highest single-day count in the country in 159 days, and Maharashtra hit another all-time high of 35,952 new infections in a single day. The daily death toll in India was 255, up from 250 for the second time in the last three days.
Active cases in the country have risen by more than 52,000 in the past two days alone, including the highest single-day increase of more than 26,400 on Wednesday. The fastest 1 lakh increase in cases before this was the 9 lakh increase from active cases to 10 lakh in six days during the peak of the pandemic in mid-September last year.
India is in the midst of its fastest growth in coronavirus cases. In the past 15 days, the seven-day moving average of daily cases increased 2.6 times, from 18,379 on March 10 to 47,439 on March 25. The corresponding increase during the first wave of the pandemic took almost twice as long – 28 days. for the average to rise from 18,280 on June 29 of last year to 46,760 on July 27, according to TOI’s Covid-19 database. The good news is that during the corresponding period last year, India recorded many more deaths than today.
Daily deaths had hovered above 400 during the 28-day period, while they peaked at 608. By contrast, the death toll peaked at 276 on Tuesday. However, deaths have been on the rise since the increase in cases began. India’s case count of 59,078 was the highest daily number in more than five months since October 17 and a sharp increase from Wednesday’s count of 53,395.
The increase was mainly due to Maharashtra, where daily cases increased from 31,855 the day before to 35,952. Mumbai also continued to break previous records for highest daily detections, reporting 5,505 new cases on Thursday, the highest so far. The state also recorded 111 deaths. Cases increased dramatically in other states as well.
Apart from Maharashtra, at least 17 states recorded their highest daily case on Thursday since January or earlier. That included Gujarat, which recorded 1,961 new infections, its highest count to date. This was the fourth time in as many days that Gujarat reported a new record for cases. Punjab recorded 2,700 cases, the highest since Sept. 18.
Up to 14 states / UT reported their highest increase in a single day this year. Karnataka added 2,523 new cases, the highest since Nov. 11, while Chhattisgarh’s count soared to 2,419, the highest since Oct. 23. Other states that saw a large increase on Thursday were Madhya Pradesh (1,885 cases, the highest since October 14), Tamil Nadu (1,779, the highest since November 15), Delhi (1,515, the highest since October 15). December 16), Haryana (1,053, the highest since December 11).
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