India: One lakh new COVID cases traced in just 10 days

India is witnessing probably the worst surge in COVID cases. In the past ten days alone, the country has recorded 1 lakh more coronavirus positive cases. Saturday marked the worst daily spike of 11,458 infections.

The death toll climbed to 8,884 with 386 new fatalities, the Union Health Ministry said.

It is important to note that it took 64 days to cross the first 1 lakh mark from 100 cases. In another fortnight, India’s COVID cases reached two lakh.

With the latest surge in COVID cases, India has become the fourth worst-hit nation by the pandemic with a caseload of 3,08,993. The United States of America, Brazil and Russia top the list of the coronavirus worst-hit nations.

The surge of one lakh cases in merely ten days also coincides with India’s move of unlocking the country. The Central Government had lifted the lockdown restrictions post-May 31. Markets and malls, parks,  and places of worship are among the facilities that were allowed to open to the public from June 8.

However, on Friday, the Health Ministry said that the doubling time of coronavirus cases has improved to 17.4 days from 15.4 days. Its data, which was updated at 8 am on Saturday, showed active cases at 1,45,779.

The only sigh of relief is that 1,54,329 patients have recovered so far. "Thus, around 49.9 per cent patients have recovered so far," a ministry official said.

Of the 386 new deaths, Delhi accounted for the highest with 129 fatalities, followed by Maharashtra with 127. The virus is moving rapidly in Delhi, which reported over 2,000 cases on Friday for the first time, and Maharashtra, where the number of cases has crossed one lakh.

States with highest COVID cases: Maharashtra has reported the maximum number of cases at 1,01,141 followed by Tamil Nadu (40,698), Delhi (36,824), Gujarat (22,527), Uttar Pradesh (12,616), Rajasthan (12,068) and Madhya Pradesh (10,443).

States with highest COVID deaths: Of the total 8,884 deaths, Maharashtra tops the tally with 3,717 fatalities followed by Gujarat with 1,415 and Delhi with 1,214 deaths.

States with least COVID deaths: Chhattisgarh and Himachal Pradesh have registered 6 deaths each, Chandigarh 5, Puducherry 2, while Meghalaya, Tripura and Ladakh 1 each, according to the health ministry.

More than 70 per cent of deaths have happened due to comorbidities, the ministry said.