India reported 3,14,835 Covid-19 new cases in the last 24 hours, the highest single-day spike since the onset of the pandemic early last year, taking the overall infection tally to 1,59,30,965 on Thursday, according to data from the Union Health Ministry.
Since April 15, India has continued to report over 2 lakh new Covid-19 cases on a daily basis.
There were 2,95,041 new cases on Wednesday, 2,59,170 cases on April 20, 2,73,510 on April 19, 2,61,500 on April 18, 2,34,692 on April 17, 2,17,353 on April 16 and 2,00,739 on April 15.
Meanwhile, 2,104 additional people died due to the virus, which took the total death toll to 1,84,657.
This is the second consecutive day that the country has registered over 2,000 deaths in a single day.
On Wednesday, 2,023 deaths were reported, which was the highest single-day spike so far.
With the fresh Covid-19 cases, the country's active caseload stands at 2,29,142. A total of 1,78,841 infected people recovered in the last 24 hours, taking the total recoveries to 1,34,54,880.
The Health Ministry said that a total of 16,51,711 samples were tested in the last 24 hours. So far, a total of 27,27,05,103 samples have been tested in the country.
According to the government data, a total of 22,11,334 people were also vaccinated in the same period, taking the total inoculation count to 13,23,30,644.
The five most affected states by total cases are Maharashtra (67,468), Uttar Pradesh (33,106), Delhi (24,638), Karnataka (23,558) and Kerala (22,414).
Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray on Wednesday night announced a series of new covid restrictions like the "Break the Chain" programme to fight the deadly coronavirus spike. The state government stated that the fresh curbs will come in effect from 8 pm on Thursday and will remain in force until 7 am on May 1.
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Assuring that "oxygen demand and supply is being monitored round the clock", Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan in a tweet last night said the government has increased the "quota of oxygen" for seven states that have recorded the biggest surge in Covid surge - Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Haryana, Punjab, Andhra Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Delhi.
Meanwhile, the Delhi High Court on Wednesday has taken strongly on the Centre amid the shortage of oxygen. It said that “human lives are not that important.. for the state”. "We don't care, beg, borrow, steal or requisition new plants if you want," said the judges directing the Central government to fulfil the hospitals' need of oxygen, critical for treatment and recovery of Covid-19 patients.