New Delhi:
India saw 40,953 new coronavirus infections being reported in a day, the highest single-day rise recorded in 111 days, taking the nationwide COVID-19 tally to 1,15,55,284, according to Union Health Ministry data updated on Saturday.
Registering an increase for the tenth day in a row, the total active caseload has reached 2,88,394, which now comprises 2.49 per cent of the total infections, while the recovery rate has further dropped to 96.12 per cent, the data stated.
Maharashtra jas accounted for more than half the infections.
Deaths rose by 188 to 159,404, the health ministry reported, underscoring a resurgence of the virus in the world's third-worst affected country, after the United States and Brazil.
Some regions in India have already reimposed containment measures, including lockdowns and restaurant closures, and more are being considered. Doctors have blamed the fresh infection wave on people's relaxed attitude to mask-wearing and other social distancing measures, warning that hospital wards were swiftly filling up in states like Maharashtra.
Maharashtra reported a record 25,681 cases, including 3,000 in the financial capital of Mumbai, over the past 24 hours. The state of 112 million people has imposed a lockdown in some districts and put curbs on cinemas, hotels, and restaurants until the end of the month. Chief minister Uddhav Thackeray warned that a wider lockdown is an option, according to local media.
The rise in India's COVID-19 cases peaked at nearly 100,000 a day in September and had been falling steadily until late last month. In addition to Maharashtra, the Indian states of Punjab, Karnataka, Gujarat, and Madhya Pradesh all reported a surge in new cases.
Dharavi, the biggest slum in Mumbai, has reported 272 coronavirus cases so far in the month of March as against the entire February's infection count of 168, a rise of 62 percent, civic officials said on Saturday.
The spike in cases in this slum sprawl, which is spread over 2.5 sq km of area, has set alarm bells ringing for the authorities, although they say that they are better prepared this year to tackle the situation as compared to last year when the outbreak had started.
The capital, New Delhi, has reported a steady rise in infections over the last two weeks, prompting city authorities to scale up an immunization drive to 125,000 doses per day, from about 40,000. Many Indians have started questioning the government's highly publicized vaccine exports campaign when only a fraction of the country's 1.35 billion people have been inoculated.
The government has announced plans to inoculate 300 million people, or a fifth of the population, by August. Yet only 42 million have been vaccinated so far, while the world's biggest vaccine maker has gifted or exported almost 60 million doses.
On November 29, 41,810 new infections were recorded in a span of 24 hours.
The number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 1,11,07,332, while the case fatality rate stood at 1.38 per cent, the data stated.
According to ICMR, 23,24,31,517 samples have been tested up to March 19 with 10,60,971 samples being tested on Friday.