Single-day COVID tally up by 40% as India logs 7,240 new infections

India on Thursday recorded 7,240 new COVID cases, a 39 per cent jump since Wednesday, which led to its daily positivity rate to cross 2 per cent after 111 days.

The rise in the country’s COVID tally is being attributed to a spike in infections in Maharashtra and Kerala. Maharashtra, on Wednesday, logged 2,701 fresh infections, its highest count since January 25. Mumbai alone accounted for 42 per cent of the cases.

Kerala recorded 2,271 cases of the virus on Wednesday. The state has reported 10,805 fresh cases in the span of a week.

India’s total tally of infections now stands at 4,31,97,522, while the death toll has climbed to 5,24,723 with eight fresh fatalities, data updated at 8 am by the Union Health Ministry stated.

The active cases have increased to 32,498, comprising 0.08 per cent of the total infections, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate was recorded at 98.71 per cent, the health ministry said.

A total of 7,554 new COVID cases were reported on March 1. An increase of 3,641 cases has been recorded in the active COVID-19 case count in a span of 24 hours. The daily positivity rate was recorded at 2.13 per cent while the weekly positivity rate was also recorded at 1.31 per cent, according to the data.

The number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 4,26,40,301 , while the case fatality rate was recorded at 1.21 per cent.

The cumulative doses administered in the country so far under the nationwide COVID-19 vaccination drive has exceeded 194.59 crore.

India’s COVID-19 tally had crossed the 20-lakh mark on August 7, 2020, 30 lakh on August 23, 40 lakh on September 5 and 50 lakh on September 16. It went past 60 lakh on September 28, 70 lakh on October 11, crossed 80 lakh on October 29, 90 lakh on November 20 and surpassed the one-crore mark on December 19, 2020. India crossed the grim milestone of two crore cases on May 4 and three crore on June 23, 2021. The eight new fatalities include one each from Delhi and Chhattisgarh and six deaths from Kerala.

(With inputs from agencies)