With this latest spike, the count of COVID-19 cases stands at 5,992,533 of which, there are a total of 9,56,402 active cases while 49,41,628 patients have been cured/discharged/migrated.
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The death toll due to coronavirus in the country rose to 94,503 after 1,124 deaths due to COVID-19 were reported in the last 24 hours.
The national daily positivity rate (or the percentage of tests that are positive) increased to 8.9 from yesterday's 6.3 per cent. The recovery rate has inched up to 82.1 per cent. The national mortality rate has remained at 1.5 per cent; more than 1,000 people a day have died due to coronavirus since September 2.
Maharashtra, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, and Tamil Nadu reported the highest single day increases of any state in the past 24 hours.
Second Covid Wave In Maharashtra?
While Maharashtra - the worst-hit state in the country with a tally of 13.21 lakh - recorded 20,419 new cases in the last 24 hours, the others reported between 7,000-9,000 new infections, barring Tamil Nadu which saw a surge of 5,647 new cases.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Saturday expressed apprehensions of a "second wave" of coronavirus transmission as more people are moving out for work and called for stricter compliance with norms. He especially expressed concern about asymptomatic patients not isolating strictly and spreading the infection.
Together these five states reported 49,176 new cases or around 55 per cent of all new cases.
Kerala's daily COVID-19 graph continues to surge with 7,006 new cases being reported on Saturday, taking the infection count to 1,66,939 and over 50,000 people are presently under treatment, state Health Minister K K Shailaja said.
As many as 4,412 fresh COVID-19 cases took Uttar Pradesh's infection tally to 3,82,835 on Saturday, while 69 more deaths pushed the toll to 5,517, according to a health official.
The COVID-19 death toll in West Bengal on Saturday went up to 4,721 with 56 more people succumbing to the disease, the state health department said in a bulletin.
In West Bengal, cinema halls are set to reopen from October 1. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee also said musical, dance, and magic shows with 50 participants or less would be permitted subject to compliance with Covid safety protocols.
PM Modi at the UN said that India will help the world recover from Covid
At the United Nations General Assembly, as Prime Minister Narendra Modi said India would help in bringing the world out of the coronavirus crisis with mass vaccine distribution once all trials are completed successfully, the CEO of the Serum Institute of India - the world's largest manufacturer of vaccines by volume - tweeted if "Government of India have 80,000 crores available over the next one year?... This is the next concerning the challenge we need to tackle."