India went past Italy to become the sixth worst-hit nation by the Covid-19 pandemic with the country registering a record single-day spike of 9,887 cases which pushed the nationwide tally to 2,36,657.
India’s death toll due to Covid-19 rose to 6,642 with a record increase of 294 deaths in the 24 hours till Saturday 8 am. India has registered over 9,000 cases for the third day in a row. The surge comes amid the first phase of unlock after a two-month shutdown even as the government plans to open religious places from next week.
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India is now the sixth worst-affected nation in terms of coronavirus infection cases after the US, Brazil, Russia, Spain and the UK, according to Johns Hopkins University data.
The number of active Covid-19 cases stood at 1,15,942, while 1,14,072 people have recovered and one patient has migrated, the Union Health Ministry said.
“Thus, around 48.20 per cent patients have recovered so far,” a senior health ministry official said.
The total confirmed cases also include foreigners.
Of the 294 deaths reported since Friday morning, 139 were in Maharashtra, 58 in Delhi, 35 in Gujarat, 12 each in Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh, 11 in West Bengal, eight in Telangana, seven in Madhya Pradesh, five in Rajasthan, two in Andhra Pradesh and one each in Jammu and Kashmir, Odisha, Punjab Jharkhand and Uttarakhand.
Of the total 6,642 fatalities, Maharashtra tops tally with 2,849 deaths followed by Gujarat with 1,190 deaths, Delhi with 708, Madhya Pradesh with 384, West Bengal with 366, Uttar Pradesh with 257, Tamil Nadu with 232, Rajasthan with 218, Telangana with 113 and Andhra Pradesh with 73 deaths.
The death toll reached 57 in Karnataka and 48 in Punjab.
According to the health ministry’s website, more than 70 per cent of the deaths are due to comorbidities.
According to the health ministry data updated in the morning, the highest number of confirmed cases in the country are from Maharashtra at 80,229, followed by Tamil Nadu at 28,694, Delhi at 26,334, Gujarat at 19,094, Rajasthan at 10,084, Uttar Pradesh at 9,733 and Madhya Pradesh at 8,996.
With 18,97,239 confirmed cases and 1,09,127 deaths, the US currently accounts for the highest number of infections and fatalities in the world, according to Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE).
In terms of cases, Brazil comes in the second place with 6,14,941 infections.
This was followed by Russia (4,49,256), the UK (2,84,734), Spain (2,40,978), India (2,36,184), Italy (2,34,531), France (1,90,180), Peru (1,87,400), Germany (1,84,924), Turkey (1,68,340), Iran (1,67,156), Chile (1,22,499) and Mexico (1,10,026), the CSSE figures showed.
Regarding fatalities, the UK continues in the second position after the US with 40,344 COVID-19 deaths, which also accounts for the highest fatalities in Europe.
The other countries with over 10,000 deaths are Brazil (34,021), Italy (33,774), France (29,114), Spain (27,134) and Mexico (13,170)
