India records 3.86 lakh new COVID-19 cases, death toll crosses 3000 mark in 24 hours

India reported the highest ever single-day spike with 3,86,452 fresh COVID-19 cases, taking the total tally to 1,87,62,976 on Friday, as per data by the Union Health Ministry. This is the ninth straight day that India reported more than 300,000 new COVID-19 cases in the country.

The health ministry data says 3,498 patients have succumbed to the viral disease in the last 24 hours, taking the death toll to 208,330. Active caseload surged by 85,414 and currently stands at 3,170,228 from the 3,084,814 reported previously. This accounts for 16.90% of the total confirmed cases in the country.

Meanwhile, as many as 297,540 patients were discharged in the last 24 hours and so far 15,384,418 people have recovered from the disease, the central health ministry's dashboard showed. With this, the country's recovery rate stands at 81.99%, the data also showed.

The number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 1,50, 86,878. The case fatality rate has further dropped to 1.11%, the data stated. 

The Centre on Thursday directed the states and Union territories to go for intensive local containment measures in the districts that have a high number of COVID-19 cases to curb the spread of the viral disease. 

Meanwhile, all vaccination centres in India's financial capital of Mumbai were shut for three days starting Friday due to a shortage of vaccines, said authorities, as the country posted another record daily rise in COVID-19 cases.

Nearly 1.33 crore people registered on the CoWIN platform for the next phase of the nationwide coronavirus vaccination drive, which will cover all adults between the ages of 18 and 44 years.