India registered the highest-ever spike of 2,003 Covid-19 fatalities, yesterday (16), according to the Union Health Ministry data.

The coronavirus cases in the country crossed the 3.5 lakh-mark and reached 3,54,065 after 10,974 new infections were reported during the last 24 hours.

Of the total, 3,54,065 COVID-19 cases in the country, 1,55,227 are active cases, while 1,86,934 people have cured and discharged from the hospitals across the country. With this the recovery further improves, however, with the spike of over 2,000 deaths, the mortality rate in the country shoots up to 3.4 percent. 

Of the 2,003 deaths recorded in the last 24 hours, 1,409 deaths were reported in Maharashtra, as 862 deaths were added after data reconciliation, while over 400 deaths were reported in the national capital making a large chunk of the total spike.

Among the Indian states, Maharashtra remains to be the worst-hit state with the total cases in the state reaching 1,13,445, while the death toll rose to 5,537 after over 1,400 fatalities during the last 24 hours.  The southern state of Tamil Nadu, with 48,019 cases of coronavirus stood at number 2 on the list of worst-hit states. The death toll in the state also reached 528. 

Meanwhile, the current hotspot, Delhi remains to be the third worst-hit state. In Delhi, the deaths from COVID-19 mounted to 1,837 after over 400 deaths were rported in the last 24 hours, while 1,859 fresh coronavirus cases took the COVID-19 tally in the national capital to over 44,000-mark. From June 12-14, over 2,000 cases were reported per day in the city. The highest spike of 2,224 fresh cases was recorded on June 14.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday held his sixth with chief ministers and representatives of union territories (UTs) since the coronavirus pandemic began in India and hinted that the “opening of the economy will continue”.

In his meeting with the CMs, the Prime Minister praised Punjab’s coronavirus micro-containment and house-to-house surveillance strategy, asking other the states follow the same strategic approach to effectively counter the pandemic.

-Agencies