India sees its biggest single day spike in COVID-19 cases yet, with 32,500 new cases

Once again, India saw a record increase in the number of active cases as well as the number of deaths due to COVID-19.

According to the latest data released by the Union Health Ministry, the total number of COVID-19 patients in the country has gone up to 9,68,876. Just a day before, this figure was close to 9.36 lakh. That is, in the last 24 hours, more than 32,000 new cases of COVID-19 have been reported across the country. This is by far the largest number of patients recorded in a single day in India.

The number of people who lost their lives due to the SARS-CoV-2 virus infection is nearing 25,000. For the first time, the number of deaths crossed 600 in a day. Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 or SARS-CoV-2 is the virus that causes coronavirus disease 2019 or COVID-19.

The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) said today that more than 1.27 crore RT-PCR tests had been done across the country so far to check for COVID-19 patients. Out of these, 3,26,826 tests were done in the last 24 hours. After these figures came out Thursday morning, the COVID-19 positivity rate is now estimated at 7.6% whereas the death rate has come to 2.57%.

RT-PCR or reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction is a test that looks for the genetic material of the virus in swab samples. COVID-19 positivity rate is the percentage of people who test positive, out of all the people tested. Death rate or case fatality rate is the percentage of confirmed COVID-19 patients who have lost their lives. COVID-19 is a very new disease. As such the ideal positivity rate and exact fatality rate of the virus is not known—that is why collecting this data is important.

COVID-19 death toll in West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh crosses the 1,000-mark

There are now six states in the country where the number of deaths due to the new coronavirus infection has touched 1,000. Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal have now made it to the list.
On Wednesday, the death toll in both these states crossed 1,000.

West Bengal touched the dreaded mark after 20 deaths were reported whereas the total toll in Uttar Pradesh reached 1,012 after 29 deaths were reported. There are now 41,383 people in Uttar Pradesh and 34,427 in West Bengal who have contracted the new coronavirus infection.

Prior to these two states, the death toll in Maharashtra, Delhi, Gujarat and Tamil Nadu had crossed 1,000. This number has now reached close to 11,000 in Maharashtra.

Out of 2.75 lakh COVID-19 patients in Maharashtra, 10,928 have died. On Wednesday, 7,975 new infections were confirmed in the state and 233 deaths were recorded.

In Tamil Nadu, new infections rose by 4,496 to take the total over 1,50 lakh. Sixty-eight people died due to this viral infection Wednesday to take the death toll to 2,167.

Delhi reported 1,647 new cases, taking the total to about 1.17 lakh COVID-19 patients in the National Capital Region. WIth 41 new deaths, the death toll in Delhi has now risen to 3,487.

Other national updates related to the COVID-19 pandemic

The number of COVID-19 patients in Telangana is now close to 40,000; 386 deaths reported in the state so far
44,552 cases confirmed in Gujarat, with 2,079 deaths
Death toll exceeds 450 in Andhra Pradesh; the number of COVID-19 patients reached 35,451
In Bihar, the number of people who contracted this coronavirus infection increased to 20,000; 180 reported dead
Kerala may become the 17th state with 10,000 cases; 9,553 patients confirmed so far