In big spike, India adds 20,000+ cases in a day; toll crosses 16 lakh

NEW DELHI: In the biggest spurt in Covid-19 infections in India, more than 20,000 new cases were reported from across the country on Saturday, nearly 1,500 more than the previous high recorded just a day earlier.
Fresh cases surged to 20,060 on Saturday, just a day after breaching the 18,000 mark for the first time. While Maharashtra reported the highest jump in numbers, recording as many as 6,368 new cases with Mumbai’s count crossing 2,000 for the first time, at least nine other states and Union territories witnessed their highest single-day spurt in infections.

These were Tamil Nadu, with 3,713 cases, Telangana (1,087), Karnataka (918), Andhra Pradesh (796), Gujarat (615), Bihar (301), Kerala (195), Goa (89) and Puducherry (87). Numbers remained high in Delhi, which reported 2,948 fresh cases, Uttar Pradesh (607), Haryana (543) and Bengal (521), among others.
As many as 414 deaths from the virus were reported during the day, taking the overall toll past 16,000, to 16,095. The total Covid-19 cases in India stood at 5,29,533 while active cases crossed the 2-lakh mark even as the number of patients who have recovered rose to nearly 3.1 lakh, as per data collated from state governments.
Telangana became the fourth state in the country after Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Delhi to register over 1,000 cases in a single day, when as many as 1,087 people tested positive for the virus in the state. The total count of cases now stands at 13,436. In the last 24 hours, six more patients succumbed to the virus taking the death toll to 243.
India has added 71% to cases since June 12
Even in the US, which was seeing a huge surge earlier, the daily growth in deaths has fallen to 0.6% while cases increased by 1.3% a day over the 15-day period up to June 27. India’s much higher growth rates mean that it has added over 71% to cases and about 85% to deaths in the period since June 12.
Within South Asia, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Afghanistan, in that order, have the highest daily growth in deaths and the highest percentage increase in deaths in the region since June 12. Cases have grown fastest in Nepal, India, Bangladesh and Pakistan in that order. While India is somewhere near the middle of the South Asian charts when it comes to deaths or cases per million, it’s case fatality rate of 3.1 is the highest in the region, much above second and third placed Afghanistan and Pakistan with CFRs of 2.2 and 2 respectively.
Sri Lanka, Myanmar and Bhutan seem to be the countries in the region least besieged by the pandemic. The Maldives, given their tiny population, have the highest cases per million despite having less than 2,000 cases and a deaths per million figure of 15 compared to the region’s average of 12 though there have been only eight deaths.