India Reports 17,336 Fresh COVID Cases, Biggest 1-Day Spike In 4 Months; Maharashtra Sees 60% Jump In 24 Hrs

Maharashtra remained the top contributor to India's daily tally after the state reported 5,218 new cases pushing state's total caseload to 79,50,24.

New Delhi: India recorded 17,336 fresh COVID-19 infections in the last 24 hours. This is the biggest spike in daily COVID-19 cases since February 19 when the country had reported 19,968 infections. According to the Union Health Ministry data on Friday (June 24), the daily positivity rate stood at 4.32 per cent while the weekly positivity rate stood at 3.07 per cen. The daily recoveries were at 13,029 in a day. The nation reported 13 more deaths, taking the toll to 524954.

Maharashtra remained the top contributor to India’s daily tally after the state reported 5,218 new cases pushing state’s total caseload to 79,50,24. The state also reported 1 death in the past 24 hours taking the total death toll to 1,47,893.

Mumbai alone, according to a report by the state health department, recorded 2,479 cases and the sole death that was reported in Maharashtra. This was a 60 per cent rise in Mumbai’s tally compared to the previous day.

Earlier, in view of rising COVID-19 cases, Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya chaired a high-level review meeting with the core team of experts. The Union Health Minister directed the officials to continue to focus on surveillance and on Whole Genome Sequencings (WGS) to scan for any possible mutation along with increasing the pace of vaccination.

Lucknow too has reported a massive spike in Covid-19 cases in the past 24 hour. At least 166 more people have been diagnosed with Covid-19 in the state capital. Among the fresh cases, 29 were reported from Aliganj, followed by Alambagh (27), Chinhat (25), Kaiserbagh (19), Indiranagar (19), Sarojini Nagar (11), Old City (7) and Gudamba (1).

More than half of the new and active cases (over 51 per cent) are concentrated in Gautam Buddha Nagar, Lucknow and Ghaziabad while 31 per cent of the cases belong to the NCR districts of Gautam Buddha Nagar and Ghaziabad.

Meanwhile, as many as 636 new Covid-19 cases and 468 recoveries have been reported from across different districts of Uttar Pradesh in the past 24 hours.