Highest single-day spike of 20,903 COVID-19 cases in India, recovery rate crosses 60 pc

New Delhi, Jul 3 () India's COVID-19 cases soared by over 20,000 in a day for the first time taking the country's total figure to 6,25,544 on Friday, while the death toll climbed to 18,213 with 379 new fatalities, according to Union Health Ministry data.

The country recorded 20,903 coronavirus infections in a 24-hour span till Friday 8 am, with Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Delhi, Telangana and Karnataka being the major contributors to the single day rise.

Tamil Nadu on Friday crossed the grim milestone of one lakh COVID-19 cases with the state reporting 4,329 fresh infections and 64 fatalities, pushing the death toll to 1,385.

Amid mounting cases, the ministry said that early detection and a timely clinical management of COVID-19 cases have resulted in increasing daily recoveries, with the recovery rate of coronavirus patients crossing 60 per cent in the country on Friday.

The recovered cases have exceeded the active cases by 1,52,452 as of Friday.

The number of recoveries stands at 3,79,891, while one patient has migrated. There are 2,27,439 active cases of coronavirus infections currently in the country.

In accordance with the "test, trace, treat" strategy and with various measures taken recently to remove all impediments to COVID-19 testing and facilitate widespread testing by the states and Union territories, there has been a steady rise in the number of samples tested for the disease every day, with close to 93 lakh tested till date, the health ministry said.

According to the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), a total of 92,97,749 samples were tested for COVID-19 up to July 2, with 2,41,576 of those tested on Thursday.

Of the total 18,213 deaths reported so far, Maharashtra accounted for the highest 8,178 fatalities followed by Delhi with 2,864 deaths, Gujarat with 1,886, Tamil Nadu with 1,321, Uttar Pradesh with 735, West Bengal with 699, Madhya Pradesh with 589, Rajasthan with 430 and Telangana with 275 deaths.

The COVID-19 death toll reached 272 in Karnataka, 251 in Haryana, 198 in Andhra Pradesh, 152 in Punjab, 115 in Jammu and Kashmir, 77 in Bihar, 42 in Uttarakhand, 27 in Odisha and 25 in Kerala.

Jharkhand has registered 15 deaths, Chhattisgarh 14, Assam and Puducherry 12 each, Himachal Pradesh 10, Chandigarh six, Goa four and Meghalaya, Tripura, Ladakh and Arunachal Pradesh have reported one fatality each, according to the ministry.

More than 70 per cent deaths took place due to comorbidities, it said.

According to health ministry's 8 am data, Maharashtra has reported the highest number of cases at 1,86,626, followed by Tamil Nadu at 98,392, Delhi at 92,175, Gujarat at 33,913, Uttar Pradesh at 24,825, West Bengal at 19,819 and Rajasthan at 18,662.

The number of COVID-19 cases has gone up to 18,570 in Telangana, 18,016 in Karnataka, 16,097 in Andhra Pradesh, 15,509 in Haryana, and 14,106 in Madhya Pradesh.

It has risen to 10,471 in Bihar, 9,013 in Assam, 7,849 in Jammu and Kashmir and 7,545 in Odisha. Punjab has reported 5,784 novel coronavirus infections so far, while Kerala has 4,753 cases.

A total of 3,013 have been infected by the virus in Chhattisgarh, 2,984 in Uttarakhand, 2,584 in Jharkhand, 1,435 in Tripura, 1,482 in Goa, 1,279 in Manipur, 1,014 in Himachal Pradesh and 990 in Ladakh.

Puducherry has recorded 802 COVID-19 cases, Nagaland 501, Chandigarh 450 and Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu together have reported 230 COVID-19 cases.

Arunachal Pradesh reported 195 cases, Mizoram has 162 cases, Andaman and Nicobar Islands has 109, Sikkim has registered 102 infections so far, while Meghalaya has recorded 56 cases.

"Our figures are being reconciled with the ICMR," the ministry said, adding that 6,031 cases are being reassigned to states.