India records highest single-day COVID-19 spike with over 18,000 cases

Medical staff wearing Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) gear conduct a door-to-door medical screening inside Dharavi slums to fight against the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus, in Mumbai. Pic/ AFP

Six days after it recorded four lakh infections, India's COVID-19 tally raced past five lakh on Saturday with the highest single-day surge of 18,552 cases, while the death toll climbed to 15,685, according to Union health ministry data. The COVID-19 caseload zoomed to 5,08,953, while 384 fresh fatalities were recorded in the last 24 hours.

The number of active cases stands at 1,97,387, while 2,95,880 people have recovered and one patient has migrated, according to the updated figure at 8 AM. "Thus, around 58.13 per cent patients have recovered so far," an official said. The total number of confirmed cases include foreigners.

Of the 384 new deaths reported till Saturday morning, 175 were in Maharashtra, 63 in Delhi, 46 in Tamil Nadu, 19 in Uttar Pradesh, 18 in Gujarat, 13 in Haryana, 12 in Andhra Pradesh, 10 each in West Bengal and Karnataka, seven in Telangana, four in Madhya Pradesh, two in Punjab, one each in Jammu and Kashmir, Chhattisgarh, Bihar, Rajasthan and Uttarakhand.

Catch up on all the latest Crime, National, International and Hatke news here. Also download the new mid-day Android and iOS apps to get latest updates.

Mid-Day is now on Telegram. Click here to join our channel (@middayinfomedialtd) and stay updated with the latest news

This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed, agencies. Mid-day accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability, trustworthiness, reliability and data of the text. Mid-day management/mid-day.com reserves the sole right to alter, delete or remove (without notice) the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever