New Delhi: Covid-19 cases continued to rise in the country for the third day with 16,700 new infections reported on Thursday, a 27% increase over the previous day. The number of daily cases has increased by more than 2.6 times since Monday.
On Thursday, 16,695 new cases were reported in India till late night, with figures from some states yet to come. This is the highest single-day increase in cases in 71 days since 18,388 cases were reported on October 20. Thursday’s final tally is expected to be 16,700, 27% higher than the 13,180 infections detected on Wednesday.
Cases have risen dramatically in just three days since Monday, when 6,242 infections were recorded. While the biggest spikes are being seen in big metros like Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata and Bengaluru, cases are rising in most of the states except Kerala and the states of the Northeast.
With 5,368 new cases posted on Thursday, Maharashtra registered a growth of nearly 40% in a single day. Of these, 3,555 were from Mumbai, which saw a 45% increase in numbers since Wednesday. Mumbai’s daily cases have become the highest since May 5 this year.
The boom in Bengal was even faster. Covid cases in the state nearly doubled in a day, rising from 1,089 to 2,128 on Wednesday, with Kolkata’s tally rising 102% from 540 to 1,090. Delhi recorded 1,313 fresh cases, up from 923 on Wednesday.
While Kerala reported 2,423 cases, the second-highest count after Maharashtra, the pandemic outbreak continued in the state as the number this week has been lower than the corresponding days of the previous week.
However, the numbers are rising in the neighboring states of Kerala. Tamil Nadu reported 890 new cases, the highest in the state since November 4. At 707, Karnataka recorded the highest single day increase since September 26.
Other states where there has been a rapid jump in the number of Covid since Wednesday are Rajasthan (92%), Bihar (71%), Punjab (67%), Uttar Pradesh (64%), Goa (54%), Madhya Pradesh ( 50%) are included. Chhattisgarh (42%), Jharkhand (40%) and Haryana (38%). In all these states, the daily cases are still below 500. Jharkhand has the highest count among these states, where 482 new cases were reported on Thursday.
The death, at 73, remained below 100 for the seventh day running. However, adding older deaths to the total resulted in an increase of 222 in the total toll.