India surpasses 4K mark, logs 4,435 fresh Covid-19 cases

India on Wednesday logged 4,435 fresh coronavirus cases, the biggest single-day jump in 163 days, according to Union health ministry data.

With the fresh cases, India's covid-19 tally climbed to 4.47 crore (4,47,33,719). The death toll increased to 5,30,916 with 15 deaths, the data updated at 8am stated. A total of 4,777 cases were recorded on September 25 last year.

Four deaths were reported from Maharashtra; one death each was reported from Chhattisgarh, Delhi, Gujarat, Haryana, Karnataka, Puducherry and Rajasthan; and four were reconciled by Kerala.

At 23,091, the active cases now comprise 0.05 per cent of the total infections. The national covid-19 recovery rate was recorded at 98.76 per cent, according to the health ministry website.

The daily positivity rate was recorded at 3.38 per cent and the weekly positivity rate at 2.79 per cent. The number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 4,41,79,712, while the case fatality rate stood at 1.19 per cent.

The Covid-19 cases in India have seen an upward trend in the past few days with the daily fresh infections ranging between 2,994 on April 1 to 3,824 on April 2 and 3,641 on April 3 now dropped to 3038 in the last 24 hours.

The Health Ministry has cautioned about a rise in weekly Covid-19 infections in six states in southern and western India, calling for enhanced surveillance, viral genome sequencing and efforts to detect and control any localised outbreaks.

The ministry, citing the rising counts, has asked Gujarat, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra, Telangana, and Tamil Nadu to monitor new and emerging clusters of Covid-19 cases and take pre-emptive action in any areas of concern to control the spread of infection.

Scientists suspect the observed rise in infections is likely driven by a new coronavirus variant called XBB.1.16 identified in India earlier this month.