In biggest Covid surge, 66,000+cases,1,008 deaths in day

An unprecedented surge in the Covid-19 pandemic in India on Thursday saw the number of fresh cases as well as deaths from the virus touch r...

An unprecedented surge in the Covid-19 pandemic in India on Thursday saw the number of fresh cases as well as deaths from the virus touch record highs. New infections during the day went past 66,000 while fatalities touched 1,008.                                                       Fresh cases rose to 66,037, beating the previous single-day high of 65,410 cases recorded on August 8, as per TOI’s data collated from state governments. With this, India’s total caseload crossed 24 lakh. This was the second time that fatalities had crossed 1,000 in a day. Thursday’s count was just higher than 1,007 deaths recorded on August 9.

     Meanwhile, India now has the second highest count of active covid-19 cases in the world after the US, according to the latest data from Johns Hopkins University. The number of active cases India has gone past the count in Brazil after that country showed a sharp drop in active Covid-19 cases, as per Johns Hopkins data. Brazil had the second highest number of active cases till a few days ago.               India’s active cases continue to rise, although at a much slower pace this month as compared with the second half of July. The Johns Hopkins website on Thursday afternoon showed India's active cases at 6,53,622 while the corresponding number in Brazil was 5,54,356. The US had by far the most active cases in the world at 32,76,125. As per TOI’s data, by late Thursday night, India’s active cases had risen to nearly 6.64 lakh.         Thursday’s surge in deaths was led by Maharashtra, which reported 413 Covid-19 fatalities, its highest toll for a day so far , taking the the state’s toll for a day so far, taking the state’s total deaths to 19 ,063.Earlier, the highest deaths reported in a day were 390 on August 9.                                             The state attributed this jump in fatalities to its data-data-cleaning exercise. Of the 413 deaths, 288 are from the from the last 48 hours, the state said, 74 are from last week and the remaining 51 are from a period before that . The state also continued to add a large number of new Covid19 cases (11,813), taking its total cases to 5,60,126 by breaching the 5.5 lakh mark. Mumbai added 1,200 or 10.1% of cases for Thursday. Pune division recorded the highest cases (3,034) and deaths (118) in the state.