India Reports Record Hike In Virus Cases; Toll Crosses 18,600

Numbers rising faster in southern states: Officials; fast-tracking of vaccine done in public interest: ICMR; dosage guidelines of Remdesivir revised, says health ministry; Chennai death toll reaches 1,000

- Resmi Sivaram / Nirmala Joseph

India has reported its highest single-day spike, with 22,771 new cases recorded as of Saturday morning.

The country’s overall count has hit 6,48,315. Another 444 people died in 24 hours taking the death toll to 18,669.

Officials at the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Saturday expressed concern that coronavirus (COVID-19) cases are rising rather fast in the southern states, which were initially seen safer.

While Tamil Nadu was the second or third worstaffected state for sometime now, there had been a surge in neighbouring states Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka and Kerala.

Except Kerala, all the other states are now in the top ten list of states with maximum caseload in the country.

In fact virus cases in these states are growing at a rate faster than the national growth rate.

Tamil Nadu has imposed tight curbs in several areas while Karnataka has also followed suit.

Delhi with 94,000 cases is the second highest, next to Maharashtra, where the bulk of 192,000 plus cases are in Mumbai.