With 24,882 cases, India records highest single-day spike so far this year

India on Saturday recorded 24,882 fresh COVID-19 infections, the highest so far this year, which took the caseload to 1,13,33,728, according to Union health ministry data.

This is also the highest daily rise in the last 83 days. As many as 26,624 new infections were recorded on December 20.

The death toll climbed to 1,58,446 with 140 new fatalities, the data updated at 8 am showed.

The country's active caseload increased to 2,02,022, which constitutes 1.74 per cent of the total infections. The recovery rate dropped to 96.82 per cent.

The number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 1,09,73,260. The case fatality rate stands at 1.40 per cent, the data stated.

India's COVID-19 tally had crossed the 20-lakh mark on August 7, 30 lakh on August 23, 40 lakh on September 5 and 50 lakh on September 16. It went past 60 lakh on September 28, 70 lakh on October 11, 80 lakh on October 29, 90 lakh on November 20 and surpassed the one-crore mark on December 19.

According to the Indian Council of Medical Research, 22,58,39,273 samples had been tested until March 12 including 8,40,635 on Friday.