India sets world's highest single-day rise with 78,761 new coronavirus cases

India sets world's highest single-day rise with 78,761 new coronavirus cases

A record surge of 78,761 fresh coronavirus cases in the last 24 hours took India's Covid tally to 35,42,733, the Union Health Ministry said this morning. This is the highest single-day surge reported by any country since the beginning of the pandemic.

India’s 78,761 cases exceeded the 77,299 recorded in the United States on July 16, a Reuter’s tally of official data showed.

India’s grim milestone came a day after the government further eased its coronavirus lockdown, in place since late March, to boost the struggling economy.

Millions have lost their jobs since the start of the lockdown, with the poor particularly hard hit.

The Home Affairs Ministry said gatherings of up to 100 people would be allowed with face masks and social distancing at cultural, entertainment, sports and political events from next month.

The world’s second-most populous 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.