India reports world’s highest daily rise in virus cases

By Cheena Kapoor

NEW DELHI (AA) - India recorded the world’s highest single-day spike in coronavirus cases, with 67,151 new infections, the country’s Health Ministry data revealed on Wednesday.

The fresh cases have taken the national tally past the 3.23 million mark.

The death toll in the country rose to 59,439, as 1,059 new fatalities were reported over the past 24 hours.

More than 2.46 million patients have recovered from the virus, pushing the recovery rate to 76.29%. The total number of active coronavirus cases in the country reached 707,267.

According to the Health Ministry, a total of 925,383 tests were conducted in the country over the past day, bringing the tally to nearly 37 million.

“Early identification through testing, prompt and effective treatment through supervised home isolation and quality medical care, and innovative graded policy measures have resulted in almost 100% increase in recovered cases in the last 21 days,” the Health Ministry said in a Tweet.

Five most affected states in terms of number of cases are Maharashtra (703,823), Tamil Nadu (391,303), Andhra Pradesh (371,639), Karnataka (291,826), and Uttar Pradesh (197,000).

On Tuesday, the Indian Health Minister Dr. Harsh Vardhan said that eye-banking guidelines advised temporary suspension of donor cornea retrieval and elective corneal transplantation surgeries when active COVID-19 lockdown measures were being implemented.

“This led to almost negligible cornea retrieval in April-May with more than 90% fall in corneal transplant surgeries. I am now happy that eye banking activities have now resumed,” he added.

Over 6.8 million people suffer from corneal blindness in the country, according to the Health Ministry.