India Reports 7,240 New COVID-19 Infections, Second Day Of Nearly 40% Rise In Cases In 24 Hours

India has added 7,240 new COVID-19 cases to the country's tally, taking the total number of confirmed infections to 4,31,97,522.

In the past 24 hours, India also recorded eight deaths from COVID-19 taking the tally so far to death toll has climbed to 5,24,723.

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With an increase of over 7,000 cases in the past 24 hours, the number of active COVID-19 cases in India rose to 32,498, comprising 0.08 per cent of the total infections, data from the Union Health Ministry showed.

Highest single day rise since March

This is the highest number of COVID-19 cases reported in India in 24 hours since March.

On March 1, a total of 7,554 new COVID cases were reported from across the country in 24 hours.

This is also the first time in 111 days the daily positivity rate crossed 2 per cent mark.

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The daily positivity rate was recorded at 2.13 per cent while the weekly positivity rate was also recorded at 1.31 per cent, according to the data.

On Wednesday a total of 5,233 infections were recorded in 24 hours, which was nearly 41 per cent higher than the number of infections a day earlier.

On Thursday, there was a 39% increase in new COVID-19 cases.

Maharashtra, Kerala record the highest number of cases

Among the states, Maharashtra reported the highest number of cases in the past 24 hours - 2,701.

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This is the biggest jump in daily COVID-19 cases seen in Maharashtra in nearly four months. The state had last reported 2,797 fresh cases on February 17.

Out of this, Mumbai alone accounted for 1,765 the highest the city has recorded in 133 days.

Though there is no alarming rise in COVID-19 cases yet, there is clearly an increase in new infections across many states.

India recorded 4,270 COVID cases on Sunday and the tally rose to 4,518 cases on Monday. However, the cases marginally declined to 3,714 on Tuesday.

On Wednesday the figures stood at 5,233 infections in 24 hours.

India has added 41,773 new COVID-19 cases in the past 7 days.

Raising concern over slight spike in Covid-19 cases in some states, the Centre on Friday also wrote to Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Kerala to continue monitoring the spread of the infection.

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"A sustained and significant decline in the number of Covid-19 cases has been observed in India over the past 3 months. However, from past 1 week, a slight upsurge in cases is being noticed with 15,708 cases reported in week ending May 27, 2022 rising to 21,055 cases reported in week ending June 3, 2022", health ministry had said in the letter.

Environmental factors also responsible for current rise in cases

According to Dr Rajeev Jayadevan, Co-Chairman National IMA COVID task force, the rise of cases in two states of Maharashtra and Kerala can be attributed to the environmental factors along with others.

"To reach new hosts, the virus needs to hitch a ride from one person to another. Droplets are the vehicles used by the SARS-CoV2 virus for this purpose. Essentially these are like drops of fluid, only smaller and lighter. It is an established fact that respiratory viruses spread more during the monsoon season in tropical countries", he told IANS.

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This is due to more efficient droplet-based transmission occurring between people during wet humid conditions, said Dr Jayadevan.

The other contributing factors in the rise of cases may be the Omicron sub-variants. "Free mobility along with carefree attitude about Covid Appropriate Behaviour are the contributing factors for the rise", he said.

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