India registers over 1.26 lakh Covid cases in biggest spike ever

New Delhi: India registered 1,26,789 fresh Covid cases in 24 hours, setting another one-day record as the county battled the second wave of infections. The total deaths pushed to 1,66,862 with 685 deaths in the last 24 hours.

The total number of cases since the first recorded infection in India in January last year now stands at over 1.29 crore, making it the third worst-hit country after the United States and Brazil.

Active cases have crossed the 900,000-mark and now stand at 910,319. India is now the 4th-worst hit country in terms of active cases.

Maharashtra reported 59,907 new Covid-19 cases in the highest ever single-day spike today. The state also reported the highest single-day death count due to coronavirus since the beginning of the pandemic with 322 fatalities. Out of the new cases today, Pune shared the highest with 11,023 cases, followed by Mumbai at 10,428.

Delhi also recorded this year’s biggest single-day rise of 5,506 cases.

The five most affected states by total cases are Maharashtra (3,173,261), Kerala (1,144,594), Karnataka (1,033,560), Andhra Pradesh (910,943), and Tamil Nadu (907,124).

A complete lockdown was announced in Chhattisgarh’s capital Raipur from April 9 till April 19, while the Punjab government extended its state-wide night curfew till April 30, even as Bengaluru ordered a ban on use of swimming pools and gyms in the city.

These are the latest in a string of regions across the country that have again started enforcing a wide range of curbs ranging from night curfews to limits on public assembly as they struggled to reel under the second wave of Covid-19 cases.

In Maharashtra, which is contributing roughly half of all cases in India, authorities have imposed a night and weekend curfew, ordered non-essentials businesses to shut down, and asked most offices to switch to remote working.

Night curfews are among the most common non-pharmaceutical interventions used by governments to check the pandemic in Punjab, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Maharashtra.

Image courtesy of (Business Standard)

Share this post