India surpassed Spain now 5th most-affected country by novel coronavirus

India has now become the fifth worst-hit nation by the COVID-19 pandemic after a record spike in cases for four consecutive days pushed total infections to over 2,43,733, according to the Johns Hopkins University data. In less than 24 hours, India surpassed Italy and then Spain to reach the fifth position. Now, only, the US, Brazil, Russia, and the UK are ahead of it.

According to the Union Health Ministry, India registered a record single-day spike of 9,887 cases and 294 deaths by Saturday 8 am, mounting the tally to 2,36,657 and the death toll to 6,642. It was for the third day in



a row that the country registered over 9,000 cases. The number of active COVID-19 cases stood at 1,15,942.

Meanwhile, as many as 1,14,073 people have also recovered from the infections so far. Of these, 4,611 COVID-19 patients having been cured in the last 24 hours, the health ministry said. "Thus, around 48.20 percent patients have recovered so far," a senior ministry official said. The total confirmed cases included foreigners.

The health ministry said cumulatively 45,24,317 samples have been tested so far with 1,37,938 samples tested in the last 24 hours.