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In highest single-day spike, India records 2,364 cases, more than 1,000 in Maharashtra
Almost half of Friday’s caseload came from Maharashtra, which reported 1,008 cases. This is also the first time that the state, which has been pummelled by the contagion, has reported more than 1,000 cases.
India recorded the highest single-day spike in Covid-19 infections with 2,364 cases on Friday, the first time the country has reported more than 2,000 daily cases of the disease that first showed up in Kerala more than three months ago.
Almost half of Friday’s caseload came from Maharashtra, which reported 1,008 cases. This is also the first time that the state, which has been pummelled by the contagion, has reported more than 1,000 cases.
The previous highest daily count was 1,907 cases that was reported on April 28, also the day India crossed 30,000 Covid-19 cases. Despite the rise, the government continued to express confidence in strict containment measures and said it had sufficient supplies of medical equipment, drugs and ventilators to tackle any surge in demand.
An analysis by HT showed that the country averaged a daily number of 1,836 new cases every day in the past seven days, up from 1436 the week before.
After Maharashtra, which has the highest share of infections in the country, the biggest chunks of cases came from Gujarat (326) and Delhi (223). The total cases in India stood at 37,259, the number of deaths at 1,221 and the number of those recovered at 9,874.
Despite the steady rise in the number of cases, the doubling rate – the number of days it takes for a given number of infections to double – has been steadily rising, a sign that the government has been able to contain the rapid spread of the disease. It stood at 11.7 days on Thursday, up from around four at the beginning of the month.
But on Friday, the doubling rate slightly decreased to 11.5 days – the first time since April 5 that the number has gone down.
In Maharashtra, the state capital of Mumbai recorded 751 cases – the highest one-day jump for the city that accounts for roughly two-thirds of all infections in the state. The total number of cases for the city stands at 7,812 and that for the state is at 11,506.
State government officials said 399 of the 1,008 positives were from tests conducted between April 25 and 28, and were added to Friday’s tally after verification.
While 106 patients were discharged on Friday upon recovery, 26 patients died, the Maharashtra health department said.
The death toll reached 485 and number of discharged patients was 1,879, officials added.
Ten deaths were recorded in Pune city, five in Mumbai, three is Jalgaon district and one each Pune district, Sindhudurg, Bhiwandi, Thane, Nanded, Aurangabad and Parbhani during the day. Besides, a resident of Uttar Pradesh died in Mumbai during treatment for virus infection. 15 of 26 patients who died had high-risk comorbidities (existing health issues), the statement said.
Globally, the total number of cases topped 3.36 million, almost a third of which are from the United States. The US recorded 16,500 daily cases as of Friday night, followed by Spain at 3,648 and Italy at 1,965. The total number of cases in the three countries stand at 1,111,510, 242,988 and 207,428, respectively.
(with inputs from agencies and HTC, Mumbai)
