India sets global record with single-day rise in COVID-19 cases

NEW DELHI: India has reported the highest single-day jump in coronavirus cases of any nation in the COVID-19 pandemic.

India’s 78,761 cases exceeded the 77,299 recorded in the United States on 16th July, a Reuters tally of official data showed. The nation is, with 3.54 million cases, the third-hardest hit by the pandemic, following the United States and Brazil, but its daily tallies have exceeded those of the other two countries for almost two weeks.

The COVID-19 death toll in India jumped by 948 to 63,498, the federal health ministry data showed. Maharashtra, another Indian state recorded 331 fatalities, the steepest single-day increase among all states, followed by the southern state of Karnataka with 136 deaths.

Despite the surging case numbers, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been pushing for a return to normalcy to lessen the economic pain of the pandemic, having earlier imposed strict lockdowns of the country’s 1.3 billion people.

The federal home ministry has decided to let underground train networks reopen with some restrictions in New Delhi, India’s capital of about 20 million people.

The subway will start running on 7th September for the first time since March, when India imposed the world’s strictest lockdown to contain the spread of the new coronavirus. Cinemas, swimming pools, entertainment parks, and other such places will remain shut.