NEW DELHI, June 18: India recorded its biggest single-day jump of 12,881 COVID-19 cases today.
According to the Union Health Ministry data, India’s COVID-19 tally rose to 3,66,946 while the death toll climbed to 12,237 with 334 new fatalities. The fatality rate has risen from 2.8 to 3.3 per cent in the last two days.
From June 1 till 18, the country saw a surge of 1,76,411 coronavirus cases with Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Delhi, Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh, which are the five worst affected states, accounting for the rising tally. The recovery rate is currently around 53 per cent.
As cases spike in the national capital and in the satellite towns, Union Home Minister Amit Shah favoured a unified strategy for Delhi and NCR, and said suburban cities like Gurgaon, Noida and Ghaziabad can’t be separated from the national capital in the battle against the pandemic.
With Uttar Pradesh recording its highest single-day spike of 604 cases, the Allahabad High Court suggested that the state government undertake mass testing of COVID-19. The state’s tally stood at 15,785.
In Maharashtra, the COVID-19 tally rose to 1,20,504 with the addition of 3,752 new cases while 100 fresh deaths were recorded to take the toll to 5,751.
Tamil Nadu registered more than 2,000 fresh cases for the second straight day to take the total to 52,334.
In some concern for the northeast, Manipur reported 54 new COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours with all the patients having come from other States, taking its tally to 606, officials said.
In States which had cases less than 10,000, Andhra Pradesh witnessed a record single day high of 425 new taking the overall tally to 7,496.
When asked about the surge, a senior health official said the pandemic was probably peaking in the state.
“Yes, we are peaking. Handling the new case load is crucial for us now,” he added. (PTI)
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