Maharashtra Reports Over 63,000 Covid Cases In Biggest Single-Day Surge

Maharashtra on Sunday reported over 63,000 new coronavirus cases in its highest ever single-day surge along with 349 deaths. At 63,294, Sunday's infections were 14 per cent higher than a day ago and took the number of active cases in the state past 5.65 lakh.

Worst-hit among all states in the country and accounting for roughly half of its caseload, Maharashtra is under a weekend lockdown till 7 am Monday and has announced curbs like a night curfew through the week.

Battling exploding infection numbers and shortages of vaccines, drugs and hospital beds, the state government is likely to take a call on announcing a complete lockdown this week.

On Sunday, Pune reported a record number of new cases at 12,590 cases and 16 deaths, followed by Mumbai at 9,989 cases and 58 deaths.

Nagpur also logged its biggest one-day spike of 6,791 cases and 34 deaths while Thane reported 2,870 cases and two deaths and Nashik 3,332 cases and 20 deaths.

Having let its guard down with mass religious festivals, political rallies and spectators at cricket matches, India is experiencing a ferocious new wave with around 10 lakh new cases in the past week. On Sunday, the country added 1,52,879 new infections.

India currently leads the world in the daily average number of new infections reported in more than two weeks, accounting for one in every six infections reported globally each day.

Deaths have also surged, with the health ministry reporting 839 fatalities on Sunday - the highest in more than five months - taking the total to 1,69,275.

India's tally of more than 1.33 crore cases is the third-highest globally, behind the United States and Brazil. India's new infections have soared nearly 18-fold since hitting a multi-month low in early February.

Maharashtra and nine other states of Chhattisgarh, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan have shown a steep rise in the daily new COVID-19 cases lately and account for 80.92 per cent of the new infections reported in the last 24 hours, the Union Health Ministry said on Sunday.