India Registers 68,020 New Covid-19 Cases in single day: Biggest One-day Surge Since October

New Delhi: India registered 68,020 fresh coronavirus cases in the past 24 hours, making it the biggest one-day surge since October, Union Health Ministry data indicated. This includes 291 deaths. The total number of active cases has risen by 35,498.

The total number of Covid-19 cases in the country now stands at 1.2 crore with 1,61,843 deaths recorded till now since the outbreak hit India in January 2020. India also earned the dubious distinction of registering the highest number of fresh cases in the world. Maharashtra is considering imposing a strict lockdown this week after recording the highest one-day jump in coronavirus infections of any state since last March, officials said.

The state tightened travel restrictions and imposed night curfews as it reported 40,414 new coronavirus cases on Sunday, almost two-thirds of the national total, many of them in the densely-populated financial capital Mumbai. “In (Sunday’s) meeting of the (Covid-19) task force, it was suggested that very strict restrictions like lockdown should be imposed immediately,” the office of chief minister Uddhav Thackeray said in a statement.

A senior official in the state government said the lockdown could take effect “in the coming days” as officials had been asked to prepare to implement it in a phased manner.