India surpasses Italy, becomes sixth-worst COVID-19-hit nation

TIL Desk/National/New Delhi/ India went past Italy to become the sixth worst-hit nation by the COVID-19 pandemic with the country registering a record single-day spike of 9,887 cases which pushed the nationwide tally to 2,36,657. India’s death toll due to COVID-19 rose to 6,642 with a record increase of 294 deaths in the 24 hours till Saturday 8 AM.

India is now the sixth worst-affected nation in terms of coronavirus infection cases after the US, Brazil, Russia, Spain and the UK, according to Johns Hopkins University data. The number of active COVID-19 cases stood at 1,15,942, while 1,14,072 people have recovered and one patient has migrated, the Union Health Ministry said.

“Thus, around 48.20 per cent patients have recovered so far,” a senior health ministry official said. The total confirmed cases include foreigners. Of the 294 deaths reported since Friday morning, 139 were in Maharashtra, 58 in Delhi, 35 in Gujarat, 12 each in Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh, 11 in West Bengal, eight in Telangana, seven in Madhya Pradesh, five in Rajasthan, two in Andhra Pradesh and one each in Jammu and Kashmir, Odisha, Punjab Jharkhand and Uttarakhand.