Coronavirus Update: Highest Single Day Spike of 9,971 Cases, India Now Fifth Worst-Hit Nation Globally

While the death toll in India inches towards the 7000 mark, the nation's Coronavirus hotspot Maharashtra recorded 2739 new cases and 120 deaths in the last 24 hours.

New Delhi: India reported the highest single-day spike of 9,971 new COVID-19 cases and 287 deaths in the last 24 hours. The total number of cases in the country is now at 2,46,628, including 1,20,406 active cases, 1,19,293 cured/discharged/migrated cases and 6,929 deaths. While the death toll in India inches towards the 7000 mark, the nation's Coronavirus hotspot Maharashtra recorded 2739 new cases and 120 deaths in the last 24 hours. Following Maharashtra,  Tamil Nadu is at the second position with 1458 new cases in the state The numbers in the national capital are also on a rapid rise with 1320 news cases in the state, taking the total tally to 27, 654. In view of the increasing number of Coronavirus cases in Delhi, CM Arvind Kejriwal held a press conference yesterday and said that now no hospital can deny the admission of suspected cases. Hospitals will also have to admit the patients with vacant beds. India's top four metropolitan clusters, Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, and Chennai, account for nearly half of the nationwide Covid-19 tally. After including three other major urban clusters hit by the Covid-19 pandemic, Ahmedabad, Indore, and Pune, the seven of them together account for 60 percent of overall confirmed cases and more than 80 percent of the deaths across India, as per the latest data disclosed by various states and union territories. The recovery of the country stands at 48.4% but the increasing number of deaths is worrisome for the officials and the citizens. According to the ICMR,  46,66,866 samples have been tested so far and 1,42,069  samples were tested in the last 24 hours. According to John Hopkins University, the global tally has reached the 68,98,179, while India has surpassed Spain to become the fifth worst-hit nation after a record spike in cases for the four consecutive days. Also watch: India reports more than 9 thousand new COVID-19 cases in 24 hours