India sees record spike of 83,883 COVID-19 cases in 24 hours

India’s Covid-19 tally continued to rise on Thursday after over 83,000 fresh cases were registered in a single day. While the overall figure stood at 3,853,406, the death toll also increased from 66,333 to 67,376, according to latest data released by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. Now India is just 1.5 lakh behind Brazil, the world’s second most affected nation.

In the last 24 hours, 11,72,179 samples were tested, the highest single-day tests so far, taking the total number of tests past 4.55 crore.

An additional 1,043 deaths linked to the highly contagious disease have pushed the total number of fatalities to 67,376. Over 29 lakh have recovered from the infection in the country so far. Maharashtra remains the state hit hardest by the pandemic followed by three southern states – Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.

According to health ministry data, twice as many men have died of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) as women in India, with men accounting for 69 percent of all fatalities. More than 90 percent of the people who died, both men and women, were above 40 years of age.

As part of Unlock 4.0, metro services will resume across the country, except Maharashtra, in a graded manner between September 7 and 12, Union Minister for Housing and Urban Affairs Hardeep Singh Puri said, urging commuters to follow Covid-19 restrictions and “name and shame” those violating them.

Meanwhile, some 500 regular trains will be discontinued and 10,000 stops across the Indian Railways’ network will be erased in a new timetable for operations that will be adopted once the pandemic ends and services return to normal.

Globally, over 25 million have been infected with the novel coronavirus till now. While 861,668 while succumbed to the virus, over 17 million have recovered so far.