NEW DELHI: India added nearly 79,000 new cases to its Covid-19 count on Saturday, the highest single-day increase on record in any country so far, pushing the number of national cases past the 3.5 million mark (35 lakh) in the middle of a unprecedented peak in the number of pandemics during the last seven days.
At 78,903 new cases, Saturday’s Covid-19 numbers in India surpassed the previous highest single-day count of 78,427 infections reported in the US on July 25, when that country was witnessing its largest increase in the virus. .
The increase in cases in India over the past week has been even more pronounced. The country has registered 4,96,070 cases in seven days, going from a case load of 30 lakh to 35 lakh, to an average of 70,867 cases per day. This is the highest number recorded during a seven-day period in the world, higher than the worst peaks in the United States in the last half of July.
The record sum of new cases on Saturday was largely due to a massive increase in cases in Maharashtra, which reported as many as 16,867 recent infections. This was a huge jump from the state’s previous highest level of 14,888 recorded on Aug. 26.
Other states that reported high numbers on Saturday were Andhra Pradesh (10,548, more than 10,000 for the fourth day), Karnataka (8,324, more than 8,000 for five days), Tamil Nadu (6,352) and Uttar Pradesh (5,684). Tamil Nadu’s daily tally surpassed 6,000 for the first time since July 29.
With daily cases on the rise in recent days, the group of active cases has seen a sharp increase. Active cases have increased by almost 49,000 in the last four days to 7,66,226. Recoveries rose by 64,681 on Saturday to 27,06,861, according to data collected from state governments.
The day’s deaths from the virus were recorded at 945, the death toll falling below 1,000 for the first time in five days.
On day 174 of the Covid-19 outbreak, Maharashtra surpassed the 7.5 lakh case count by registering its highest number of cases in a single day of 16,867. Mumbai, once the worst access point in the country that has been stable for three months, also saw higher than usual numbers with 1,432 cases.
The largest single-day addition in the state previously was 14,888 on Aug. 26. The state for the third day in a row added more than 300 deaths to its toll (328), bringing the total deaths to 24,103. Of the total deaths reported on Saturday, 255 were from the last 48 hours, 37 from last week and the remaining 36 from the previous week, authorities said.
Tamil Nadu added the most new Covid-19 cases and the fewest deaths, 87, in a month on Saturday. As of July 29, the state had reported 6,426 new cases and the previous day it had reported 88 deaths. While the number of daily cases steadily decreased, the number of deaths increased. On average, the state reported 5,847 cases and 110 deaths per day in August.
Assam’s cumulative Covid-19 count crossed the one lakh mark on Friday, five months after the first case was reported in Silchar. However, although 80% of patients have recovered, the number of active patients sliding into a critical condition requiring oxygen support has increased over the period.
Statistics show that even as the cumulative case count hit 1.01.367 on Friday, the doubling time for the virus to spread has been greatly reduced to 23 days.
Gujarat recorded another daily high in positive Covid-19 cases at 1,282 in the 24 hours ending at 5pm on Saturday, bringing the cumulative case count to 93,883. It was the second day in a row that the state had more than 1,200 daily cases.
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