For the first time during the second Covid-19 wave in the country, daily deaths touched an all-time high on Friday, crossing 1,300 for the first time since the beginning of the pandemic. Fresh cases surged to another new peak at nearly 2.34 lakh.
Delhi Friday recorded the biggest single-day jump of 19,486 fresh COVID-19 cases and 141 deaths due to the disease, according to data shared by the health department.
On November 18 last year, the city had recorded 131 COVID-19 deaths, which was the highest single-day fatality count in Delhi till April 15 since the start of the pandemic.
The Health Department reported that Maharashtra has recorded 63,729 new coronavirus cases on Friday, the highest single-day count so far, taking the tally past the 37-lakh mark. The total number of positive cases in the state reached 37,03,584. With 398 fatalities, the death toll in the state reached 59,551, the Health Department further stated.
There are 6,38,034 active cases in the state. The recovery rate in the state is 81.29 per cent. The fatality rate in Maharashtra is 1.61 per cent. As many as 45,355 patients have been discharged from hospitals today in the state. The total number of positive patients discharged after full recovery stands at 30,04,391.
Once again breaking all previous records, Gujarat on Friday saw 8,920 new Covid cases, taking its tally to 3,84,688, while the death toll climbed to 5,170 as 94 more succumbed.
In April so far, the state has added 76,990 cases at a daily average of 4,812.
The number of people testing Covid positive in Kerala continues to spike with the test positivity rate on Friday reaching 14.8 per cent.
State Health Minister K.K. Shailaja, in a statement, said 10,031 people turned Covid positive from 67,775 samples tested in the past 24 hours, while 3,792 turned Covid negative, taking the total cured to 11,32,267.
The COVID-19 death toll in Punjab rose to 7,772 on Friday with 51 more fatalities, while 3,915 new cases pushed the infection tally to 2,90,707, a medical bulletin issued here said.
The number of active cases rose to 30,745 from 30,033 on Thursday, it said. Of the new fatalities, seven people died in Amritsar, six in Ludhiana, five in Sangrur and four in Gurdaspur, the bulletin said.
The Railways Friday formulated a policy for the transportation of liquid medical oxygen in cryogenic tankers after a plea by the government of Maharashtra, one of the worst affected states by the coronavirus pandemic.
The policy, made public late Friday night, said the cryogenic tankers will be transported as a paid-for roll on-roll of (Ro-Ro) service to various destinations across states.