Active Covid cases in India cross 6L, last 1L reported in just 4 days

India recorded its highest daily Covid-19 count in six months on Thursday even as active cases surged past the six-lakh mark with the last one lakh cases coming in just four days, highlighting the rapid surge of the pandemic’s second wave in the country. As many as 81,456 cases were reported on Thursday, the highest since October 1 when 84,176 patients had tested positive for the virus. While the cases were at a six month high, daily fatalities, at 468, too, were the highest in 117 days. The previous high was recorded on December 5 when 482 casualties were reported.

Even though daily cases are matching the numbers in the last week of September, the fatalities now are comparatively much lower. Compared to 468 fatalities on April 1, daily deaths on October 1 were 1,102 while the seven-day average of casualties on that day was 1,068.

Maharashtra continued to top the states’ chart, recording 43,183 fresh cases, its highest ever count during the pandemic, and accounting for 53% of the country’s infections on Thursday. Mumbai also reported a record daily peak by adding 8,646 cases, a significant jump from its previous high of 6,933 cases on March 28. Maharashtra reported 249 deaths, the highest since November 5 when 256 casualties were reported. Thursday was the second day in a row when the state added over 200 deaths.

Besides Maharashtra, two other states recorded their highest ever daily cases — Punjab (3,187) and Chhattisgarh (4,617). Karnataka reported 4,234 cases, taking the state’s caseload beyond the one-million mark. With this, the southern state became the third state after Maharashtra and Kerala to report more than 10 lakh cases. In fatalities, Punjab continued to be the worst affected state after Maharashtra, reporting 60 fatalities.

The active cases rose by more than 30,000 in the last 24 hours to reach 6,15,275.