New Delhi: India’s coronavirus tally reached 54,87,580 with the fresh spike of 86,961 new cases, the Health Ministry data this morning showed. 1,130 deaths in the last 24 hours have pushed the total death count to 87,882. 93,356 patients have recovered from the infection in the country in the last 24 hours.
Twelve lakh samples- the highest in a day so far- were tested since Saturday, the Health Ministry said in a tweet. This takes the total number of samples collected to 6,36,61,060.
1,133 deaths linked to Covid registered since yesterday has taken the number of fatalities to 86,752.
Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh are the worst-hit states by the outbreak.
Meanwhile, Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan has played down fears the Covid outbreak in India has reached community transmission stage, pointing out that “only 10 states are reporting maximum cases” and that the bulk of these are in “few districts”.
During an hour-long social media interaction on Sunday, the minister also turned away questions about the pandemic peaking in India, stating that different parts of the country were “at multiple trajectories”.
“Large outbreaks in certain districts indicate an acute spread… only 10 states are contributing 77 per cent of active cases. If you see state-specific data, you will find that these cases are concentrated in few districts,” Dr Vardhan said.
“India is at multiple trajectories across the urban, semi-urban and rural populations,” he added.
The Health Minister’s comment comes a day after his Delhi counterpart, Satyendar Jain, took a swipe at the centre over its insistence that India has still not entered the community transmission stage.
