Record spike in COVID cases in southern states; UP, Gujarat and Bihar too register spurt

New Delhi/Chennai, July 19: A record single-day spike in fresh cases was registered in many southern states on Sunday as India''s COVID''s tally neared 11 lakh.

Delhi, which is placed third among the states and Union territories most affected by the pandemic, continued to show an improvement in the situation, but Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat reported a sharp rise in cases.

Maharashtra was still contributing a major portion of the caseload with the highest-ever 9,518 new COVID-19 cases in a day, taking the tally to 3,10,455 while 258 more people succumbed to the disease, including 149 deaths in the Mumbai metropolitan region, the state Health department said.

Tamil Nadu reported a new single day high of 4,979 fresh COVID-19 cases as the overall tally crossed 1.70 lakh in the state, the second worst affected after Maharashtra.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke to Tamil Nadu Chief Minister K Palaniswami on the COVID-19 prevention measures.

During the phone conversation, Palaniswami apprised Modi that 48,000 coronavirus tests - a national high - were being done daily (average) in Tamil Nadu, an official statement said.

A single-day high of 5,041 COVID-19 cases was registered in Andhra Pradesh as the overall aggregate inched closer to the 50,000 mark on Sunday.

Also, the state saw the highest spike in deaths in a day as 56 coronavirus patients succumbed, pushing the toll to 642, a state government bulletin said.

Karnataka reported 4,120 new COVID-19 cases and 91 related fatalities, taking the total number of infections to 63,772 and the death toll to 1,331, the state health department said.

The state crossed the 10 lakh tests milestone today from about 88 labs in the state.

And though the situation in Kerala was relatively better, the tally breached the 12,000 mark on Sunday with 821 people, including 13 health workers, testing positive for the virus in the highest single day spurt in the state so far.

The national capital recorded 1,211 fresh coronavirus cases, the lowest in over a month, and 31 deaths due to the disease in the last 24 hours.

On June 8, the city had recorded 1,007 cases.

The total number of COVID-19 cases in Delhi is now 1,22,793. The death toll due to the disease is 3,628, according to the latest Delhi health department bulletin.

A central team, which reached Patna on Sunday to assess the COVID-19 situation in Bihar, asked the state''s health department to focus on tracking and testing to combat the deadly virus, an official said.

The state has witnessed a spike in coronavirus cases with the number of total positive cases jumping to 26,379 on July 19 from 10,075 infections on July 1.

The three-member team sent by the Union health ministry is being led by Luv Agarwal, who is a joint secretary in the ministry.

The director of the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), Dr S K Singh, and Associate Professor of Medicine, AIIMS, New Delhi, Dr Neeraj Nishchal are also part of the team.

The COVID-19 tally in Uttar Pradesh rose to 49,247 on Sunday with the highest single-day jump of 2,211 fresh cases, while the death toll reached 1,146 after 38 fatalities were reported in the state, according to a statement.

The state is implementing weekend shutdown, joining Tamil Nadu and Karnataka where a Sunday lockdown has been enforced this month.

With its highest single-day rise of 965 new coronavirus positive cases, Gujarat''s tally went up to 48,441 on Sunday, the state health department said.

The COVID-19 death toll in West Bengal on Sunday reached 1,112 after 36 people succumbed to the disease, the highest so far in a single day. A record 2,278 people tested positive for the disease, taking the infection tally to 42,487, a state government bulletin said.

Jammu and Kashmir also recorded the highest single-day spike of 701 COVID-19 positive cases, while the death toll due to the disease reached 244 with eight fresh fatalities, officials said.

With these fresh cases, the total number of infected persons in Jammu and Kashmir has risen to 13,899.

Jammu district authorities on Sunday announced a complete weekend lockdown beginning from July 24 to prevent the spread of coronavirus cases that had witnessed a spike over the past week, officials said.

Madhya Pradesh recorded its highest single-day spike of 837 new COVID-19 cases, which took the count of patients to 22,600, an official said.

The state''s death toll due to coronavirus reached 721 with 15 more patients succumbing to the infection, the official said.

India saw a record single- day jump of 38,902 COVID-19 cases pushing its tally to 10,77,618 on Sunday, while the total number of recoveries increased to 6,77,422, according to the Union Health Ministry data.

The death toll due to the disease rose to 26,816 with new 543 fatalities even as 23,672 patients have recuperated in the past 24 hours, the highest so far in a day, the data updated at 8 am showed.

However, a PTI tally at 9 PM showed that the COVID tally has reached 11.14 lakh.

The Ministry of Health said the 11 most COVID-19 affected countries in the world --the US, Brazil, Russia, Peru, Chile, Mexico, South Africa, the UK, Iran, Pakistan, Spain --together reported 8 times more cases and 14 times more deaths than India.

There are 3,73,379 active cases presently in the country. The total number of confirmed cases includes foreigners.

This is the fourth consecutive day that COVID-19 cases have increased by more than 30,000.

According to the ICMR, a cumulative total of 1,37,91,869 samples have been tested up to July 18 with 3,58,127 samples being tested on Saturday.