India sees huge jump in COVID-19 with 53,476 fresh cases

A fresh surge of 53,476 new coronavirus cases in India, the biggest single-day surge since October 23, has taken the country’s tally to 1,17,87,534, the government data this morning showed. Of the total cases, 1.12 crore people have recovered; 1,60,692 have died so far after contracting the virus.

The spike in the last 24 hours was 13 per cent higher than the fresh cases reported yesterday – 47,262. Over the last two weeks, India has been witnessing a huge spike in fresh infections. Yesterday, the government said a new “double mutant variant” of the coronavirus has been detected in 18 states in the country in addition to many other strains or variants of concern (VOCs) which have also been found abroad.

Maharashtra, Punjab, Kerala, Karnataka and Chhattisgarh are the five States that have seen the biggest single-day surge, as per the Health Ministry data. With 31,855 new infections, Maharashtra’s tally jumped to 25,64,881
.