New Delhi: India has registered 332,730 new COVID-19 cases within the past 24 hours, marking the largest daily increase since the start of the outbreak, the Health Ministry said on Friday.
The total number of infections in the country has reached 16,263,695, according to the ministry.
Within the same period of time, the death toll has risen by 2,263 to 186,920 people.
With 1,93,279 patients having treated since Thursday, the total number of recoveries now stands at 1,36,48,159. The country currently has 24,28,616 active cases.
Some of the worst hit states/UTs that have displayed an upward trend in the daily new COVID-19 cases include Maharashtra that recorded 67,013 cases, Delhi 26,169 cases, Karnataka 25,795 cases, Kerala 26,995, Chhattisgarh 14,519, Gujarat 13,105, Bihar 11,489 and West Bengal 11,948 cases in the past day.
India comes second in terms of the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases, following the United States with more than 31.92 million patients.
Meanwhile, 13 COVID-19 patients have lost their lives in a fire that broke at Vijay Vallabh hospital in the Intensive Care Unit of Virar in Palghar district of Maharashtra, in the wee hours of Friday.The incident occurred at around 0315 hrs, as the blaze started due to a short-circuit in the air conditioner in the intensive care unit (ICU), hospital sources said.
On the vaccination front, total 13,54,78,420 people have been administered COVID-19 jabs since January 16, with 22,11,334 people being inoculated since yesterday.
Maharashtra records 67,013 fresh cases of COVID-19
Meanwhile, during the past 24 hours, 67,013 fresh cases of COVID-19 were recorded across the state, mounting the total number of infections to 40,94,840.
The state also registered 568 more deaths, taking the death toll to 62,479.Meanwhile, a record 62,298 patients were recovered in the state, taking the total number of recoveries to 33,30,447.
The state's recovery rate currently stands at 81.34per cent and the fatality rate is 1.53 per cent.
At present, there are 6,99,858 active patients across the state undergoing treatment at different COVID-19 centres and hospitals, they added.
In view of the rising number of cases, the state government again imposed strict restrictions from 2000 hours tonight in the state till May 1 under the initiative of 'break the chain’, exempting emergency services.