Daily Covid-19 count crosses 1.5 lakh, sees a rise of 13%

NEW DELHI: Daily Covid-19 cases in India crossed 1.5 lakh on Saturday - up nearly 13% from the previous day's tally. India had recorded 1,59,377 fresh cases on Saturday by the time of going to press with data from

Tripura

still awaited. It took just two days for the daily tally to go past 1.5 lakh after crossing the 1-lakh mark on Thursday.

This was the first time since May 30, 2021, that the country had posted more than 1.5 lakh cases in a day.

Meanwhile, India continued to record more than 100 deaths for the second day with 120 fatalities reported on Saturday. The overall toll rose by 329 on Saturday. Friday had seen 130 deaths. The number of active cases crossed 5 lakh on Saturday, ending the day at nearly 5.9 lakh. Active cases in the country had crossed 1 lakh on December 31.

The growth of 12.6% in daily cases on Saturday was less than the rates recorded over the past few days.

The rate of growth on Friday was 21%, Thursday 29%, Wednesday 56.6% and Tuesday 56.3%. Cases are likely to see a bigger jump again on Tuesday, after the "weekend effect" of lower testing and staff shortages wears off.

Maharashtra logged 41,434 cases on Saturday - up from 40,925 on the day before.

Mumbai's tally dropped by 3% from Friday's total to 20,318; Delhi witnessed 20,181 cases on Saturday - up from Friday's 17,335.

Bengal

saw 18,802 new cases;

Uttar

Pradesh 6,411 and

Jharkhand

5,081.