For the first time since the outbreak began to hit the shores, India has recorded nearly three lakh COVID-19 cases in a day, which had become the highest single-day rise in the world in the last 24 overs on Wednesday. The never-wished feat has come when the nation is bracing up the second wave of the pandemic, which has triggered distressing times and the crisis over containing the spread and fixing the flaws in the medical infrastructure. 

India has reported a total of 2,95,041 fresh infections in the 24 hours till Wednesday morning 8 am and the highest spike of cases have taken the active cases to breach two million as the country has reported 21,57,538 active cases, comprising 13.82% of the total infections. 

According to reports, Wednesday's spike is more than twice the highest spike recorded in India last year during the peak of the first wave. While the infection rate has been increasing to a new high, the COVID-19 recovery rate has drastically dropped to 85.01 percent. Nearly three lakh cases a single day had taken the total COVID-19 tally to 1,56,16,130 so far. 

The country has also recorded 2,023 fresh deaths, which had become the biggest jump in the death toll and the total death toll has increased to 1,82,553 so far while 1,32,76,039 people have been recovered from the pandemic so far. According to the ICMR, 27,10,53,392 samples have been tested so far as of April 20 with 16,39,357 samples were tested on Tuesday. 

The spike in death toll has surfaced a major concern across the nation and the health ministry said that more than 70 percent of the deaths had occurred due to comorbidities. The ministry said, "Our figures are being reconciled with the Indian Council of Medical Research". It further added that the state-wise distribution of figures is subject to further verification and reconciliation.

Of the fresh 2,023 fatalities, 519 deaths were from Maharashtra, 277 from Delhi, 191 from Chhattisgarh, 162 from Uttar Pradesh, 149 from Karnataka, 121 from Gujarat, 77 from Madhya Pradesh, 64 from Rajasthan, 60 from Punjab, 51 from Bihar, 48 from Tamil Nadu, 46 from West Bengal, 45 from Jharkhand, and 35 each from Haryana and Andhra Pradesh. Maharashtra tops the table in the number of deaths by reporting 61,343 deaths. 

India's richest state Maharashtra amounts to nearly 50% of the country's total cases and India is the largest contributor for the global COVID-19 tally in the last fortnight. According to a global pandemic tracker, India has reported 25,19,304 cases between April 7 to April 20 while the United States and Brazil had reported 9,49,493 and 9,42,496 cases respectively during the same period. 

Amid growing cases, India is heavily relying on the vaccination drive to inoculate the COVID-19 vaccines for eligible people. The Union Health Ministry said that India has vaccinated 13,01,19,310 people so far. India has breached two million COVID-19 cases on August 7, 30 lakh on August 23, 40 lakh on September 5, and 50 lakh on September 16. It reported 60 lakh on September 28, 70 lakh on October 11, 80 lakh on October 29, 90 lakh on November 20, and went past one crore on December 19.