India registers worst single day spike in coronavirus cases

India reported a record single-day spurt of 66,999 Covid-19 cases, taking the country-wide total tally of infected patients to 23, 96,637.

The recovery rate too has soared to 70.76 percent, with 16, 95,982 people recovering in the country from the contagion, according to data from the country's health ministry this morning.

A total of 942 patients succumbed in the last 24 hours, pushing the county's fatality count to 47,033, the data showed.

The western state of Maharashtra continued to be the worst-affected state with 5,48,313 cases. The state recorded 12,712 new cases in the past 24 hours till Wednesday night while the death count stood at 18,650.

The second worst-affected state, Tamil Nadu, reported 5,871 new cases and 119 deaths on Wednesday, taking the total number of cases to 3,14,520.

West Bengal's Covid-19 caseload went up by 2,725 in the last 24 hours to 1,04,326 last night and the death toll rose to 2,203 after 54 more fatalities.

In Kolkata, the total fatality count stood one short of 1,000. The city, its adjoining districts of North 24 Parganas, South 24 Parganas, Howrah and Hooghly are the pandemic's epicentre in West Bengal.

Due to the severity of the pandemic in Kolkata and Howrah, the state's main seat of administration "Nabanna", located in Howrah, is regularly sanitised as part of protocol. The secretariat will remain closed today and tomorrow because of the sanitisation drive.