For the second consecutive day, India's single-day rise of new Covid-19 cases on Sunday breached the country's highest tally of 2021 so far, while fatalities continue to increase at a worrisome rate.
It recorded 25,320 cases, an increase of 438 cases from Saturday. There were 161 deaths in the last 24 hours, a hike of 21 fatalities from the previous day, the data shared by the Union Health Ministry showed.
The cumulative tally of the cases has risen to 1,13,59,048 while the death toll has reached 1,58,607 in India.
However, 67 per cent of the country's cases were recorded from two states only. Maharashtra has reported 15,602 cases in the last 24 hours whereas Punjab recorded its highest single-day tally of this year with 1,515 new cases of Covid-19.
"We used to record this much infections in October-November when the first wave was on decline in the country," Dr. Rajesh Bhaskar, Nodal officer for Covid-19 in Punjab told.
The infection level in the country is back to last year's December as it has soared to 1.85 from 1.55 per cent in a short interval. In the last four days, the number of fatalities has also spiked, which earlier was hovering under 100.
The country on Saturday reported 24,882 new cases and 140 deaths. On Friday, it reported 22,885 Covid cases and 117 fatalities.
The rise in the number of Covid cases, which had so far appeared confined to Maharashtra and Punjab, is now beginning to show up in several other states.
States/UTs such as Delhi, Haryana, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh have had very similar growth trajectories in the recent weeks.
As the number of Covid-19 cases is rising across the country, the Centre has sounded a word of caution for states which are not yet seeing a surge but are at the threshold.
Niti Aayog (health) member V.K. Paul last week said the situation of Maharashtra is worrying as part of the state is going back to strict lockdown. However, he shared his concerns for other states as well.
"Would like to caution Delhi-NCR, Gurugram, part of Gautam Buddha Nagar and Ghaziabad to some extent. These areas are seeing a slight rise in the number of cases," Paul had said.
So far, 2,97,38,409 doses of corona vaccine have been administered in the country since the drive began on January 16 after approval for 'Covishield' and 'Covaxin'.