India sees COVID-19 surge with over 53,000 new cases, 251 deaths in one day

India's COVID tally reached 11,787,534 on Thursday as 53,476 new cases were reported from across the country, the highest this year, according to the latest figures released by the federal health ministry. Meanwhile, 251 more deaths since Wednesday morning took the death toll to 160,692.

There are still 395,192 active cases in the country, while 11,231,650 people have been discharged from hospitals after medical treatment. There was an increase of 26,735 active cases during the previous 24 hours, out of which a maximum of 16,662 cases were reported from the southwestern state of Maharashtra.

The number of daily active cases has been on the rise over the past few days, as another wave of COVID-19 looms large in India. In January the number of daily cases in the country had come down to below 10,000. Over 53 million people have been vaccinated against COVID-19 in India since the nationwide inoculation drive started on Jan. 16.

Meanwhile, 237,503,882 tests have been conducted in the country till Wednesday, out of which 1,065,021 tests were conducted on Wednesday alone, said the latest data issued by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) on Thursday.

The national capital Delhi, one of the most COVID-19 affected places in the country, witnessed 1,254 new cases and six more deaths through Wednesday. A total of 10,973 people have died in the national capital due to COVID-19, according to Delhi's health department.  Enditem