Coronavirus cases: India records world's highest single-day spike with 3.14 lakh new COVID-19 cases

New Delhi, Apr 22: Union health ministry on Thursday said that India witnessed the world's highest single-day spike with 3,14,835 new cases of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) and 2,104 fatalities in the last 24 hours.

The total infection tally has topped 15.9 million while the active COVID-19 caseload stands at 2291428. Both the numbers smashed all previous record of coronavirus cases in India.

On Wednesday, the health ministry said that India reported over 2.94 lakh fresh coronavirus cases on Tuesday, the second highest daily case count ever recorded by any country, even as the day's death toll crossed 2,000 for the first time since the pandemic's outbreak.

According to reports, the Tuesday's national coronavirus case count was nearly three times higher than the peak of 98,795 daily infections recorded during the first wave on September 17.

The positivity rates remained very high at 19 per cent nationally on Tuesday, indicating that the daily tally may cross 3 lakh soon. While Delhi's positivity rate was over 32 per cent, it was higher than 25 per cent in states such as Bengal, and over 20 per cent in Maharashtra and Jharkhand.