Over the last 24 hours, India saw the biggest daily surge in Covid cases since mid-September with over 93,000 positive cases and deaths crossing 500 for the first time in four months. India's daily COVID cases on Friday were the highest in the world, ahead of the US (70,024) and Brazil (69,662). This was the first day since October last year that India’s cases topped the world.

In terms of the seven-day average of daily cases, India’s count of nearly 69,000 was behind Brazil’s tally of nearly 72,000 cases on Friday. With the tally rising to 73.201 on Saturday, India crossed Brazil, especially since the South American country’s graph has been declining over the past few days.

Daily deaths too crossed 500 for the first time since December 4, with 514 fatalities recorded in the last 24 hours. The explosive rise of the pandemic continued in Maharashtra, which reported 49,447 fresh cases and it recorded 277 deaths which is the highest since October 16.

On the other hand, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is holding a high-level meeting to review the Covid-related issues including the ongoing vaccination drive in the country as the infection is seeing a surge. All senior officers -- including the Cabinet Secretary, Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister, the Health Secretary are participating in the meeting.

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