India Records Over 100,000 Coronavirus Cases In Biggest Spike Yet

India, on Monday, reported its biggest-ever daily surge in coronavirus cases since the pandemic began, with the country crossing 100,000 infections for the first time.

There were 103,558 new cases in the past 24 hours, data released by the Health Ministry showed.

India’s national count was more than 5,500 cases higher than the previous peak of 97,894 reported on September 17 last year. Another 478 fatalities took the death toll to 165,101.

India is battling the second wave of COVID-19, which is driven by surging infections in the country’s richest state Maharashtra that has accounted for 57,074 cases.

Amid fears that the health care system could run out of capacity, Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a senior-level meeting to review the situation and expert teams were rushed to Maharashtra and the two other worst-affected states.

Authorities in Maharashtra have announced new restrictions including a night curfew in the state and a “strict lockdown” over the weekends, in place from Friday at 8.00 p.m. until Monday at 7.00 a.m. in order to tackle the virus surge.

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Several affected states have also re-introduced restrictions that were relaxed earlier, including closing educational institutions and restricting numbers at marriages and social functions.

The government is also pressing ahead with its vaccination program, which was opened to all people above 45 years of age last week. The country aims to vaccinate more than 300 million people by the end of July 2021.

India has logged the third-highest number of cases in the world after the United States and Brazil.