India on Thursday reported the world's highest single-day tally with 3,14,835 fresh cases. The country's overall caseload has now mounted to 1,59,24,989.

India registered record 3,14835 Covid-19 cases in the last 24 hours, pushing the overall caseload to 1,59,30,965, according to the data provided by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Thursday morning. This is the highest single-day spike the country recorded ever since the pandemic began last year.

India also reported 2,104 more deaths due to the virus with maximum deaths being reported from Maharashtra at 568, followed by Delhi at 249. So far, 1,84,657 Covid patients have succumbed to the infection across the country.

With fresh Covid-19 cases, the country's active caseload stands at 22,91,428, while total recoveries have increased to 1,34,54,880, the Union health ministry said on Thursday.

Cases in India have been skyrocketing since February and the daily Covid-19 caseload in the country has tripled in the last 17 days. India had crossed the 2-lakh mark in daily cases on April 15 and now, it has reported over 3 lakh cases in a day (on April 22).

Other than breaking its record, India's tally on Thursday has also surpassed the previous highest daily case count of 3,07,581 reported in the US on January 8, as per worldometers.info.

Top five states which have registered maximum cases are Maharashtra with 67,468 cases, followed by Uttar Pradesh with 3,3106 cases, Delhi with 2,4638 cases, Karnataka with 23,558 cases and Kerala with 22,414 cases. 54.38 per cent of the new cases are reported from these five states, with Maharashtra alone responsible for 21.43% of the new cases.

On Wednesday, Maharashtra reported 67,468 fresh coronavirus cases, taking its tally beyond the 40 lakh mark, while 568 more patients succumbed to the infection, said a state health department official. The tally of 67,468 infections, the second-highest single-day count so far, pushed the Covid-19 caseload of Maharashtra to 40,27,827, he said.

Meanwhile, Delhi logged 24,638 fresh Covid-19 cases and 249 deaths due to the viral disease on Wednesday as the positivity rate stood at 31.28 per cent, meaning almost every third sample turned out to be positive, amid a growing clamour for oxygen and hospital beds in the city.

Also, Punjab saw another record single-day spike of 4,970 cases, taking the count to 3,14,269. The state's previous biggest jump in daily infections of 4,957 was reported on April 18. Sixty-nine more fatalities pushed the toll to 8,114 in the state, according to a medical bulletin issued on Wednesday.

Source; India Today