NEW DELHI: The tally of Covid-19 cases in India crossed the 1.9 lakh mark on Monday morning as 8,392 more people tested positive for the highly contagious disease in 24 hours registering yet another highest single day spike.With this, the total number of cases in the country now stands at 1,90,535  including 5,394 deaths, according to data from the Union Ministry. of Health and Family Welfare.

The country also registered 230 deaths within a day — the second highest single day death tally so far-with 146 deaths reported from two states, Maharashtra and Delhi.India has  now climbed to seventh from the ninth spot in the list of 10 nations worst hit by the pandemic, with more cases than that of France.

Globally, US which has  over 18 lakh confirmed cases of novel coronavirus, is the worst hit country in the outbreak . Brazil follows with over five lakh cases, and Russia with over four lakh cases. The other countries which have more cases than India are the UK, Spain and Italy, according to the WHO’s coronavirus tracker. Globally, close to 62lakh people have tested positive.

Back home, the country has 10 states with more than 10,000 Covid 19 cases and Maharashtra leads the pack with 67,655 cases and 2,286 deaths. The state reported 89 fresh deaths on Sunday. Delhi, which has 19, 844 total cases reported 1,295 new cases and 57 new deaths on Sunday.

Meanwhile worryingly, the total tests conducted country wide to detect new cases fell by nearly 20 per cent with just over 1 lakh samples tested on Sunday but no explanation was offered either by the health ministry or the Indian Council of Medical Research on why there is a fall in this crucial indicator of country’s fightback against the contagion.

The number of total daily samples tested had reached nearly 1.2 lakh a few days back.