By Aakanksha Khajuria

New Delhi, Aug 20 (IANS): India, which has the third-highest number of coronavirus cases in the world, has eight states, which have recorded over one lakh cases each, accounting for 77.87 per cent of its total tally.

These states are Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, West Bengal and Bihar.

On Thursday, India's coronavirus caseload rose to 28,369,25 with a record single-day spike of 69,652 infections. The recoveries increased to 20,96,664, taking the recovery rate to 73.91 per cent, while the death toll climbed to 53,866 with 977 new fatalities.

India's journey to reach almost 30 lakh cases took over 200 days since the emergence of the first case on January 30. On July 17, the country logged 10 lakh cases, which then doubled to 20 lakh in 20 days on August 7, while another over eight lakh cases came up in just 13 days.

The total cases in the eight states, where the situation is most grim, add up to 22,09,116. The situation remains the worrisome in Maharashtra, which continues to record over 10,000 cases every day.

The total cases in the state are 6,28,642 with 21,033 fatalities, both the highest in the country. It is the only state which has over five lakh cases.

Three southern states - Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka -- have also crossed more than a lakh cases, with the former topping the charts, with 3,55,449 cases and 6,123 deaths till now. Andhra Pradesh follows with 3,16,003 cases and 2,906 deaths, while Karnataka has logged 2,495,90 cases and 4,327 deaths. Even though Andhra Pradesh has more cases than Karnataka, the latter has a higher fatality rate.

Uttar Pradesh recently breached the one lakh-mark to become the fifth most-affected state in the country. As per the data available on the Health Ministry's website, it has logged 1,67,510 coronavirus cases and 2,638 deaths. It is recording more than 5,000 cases per day.

Meanwhile, the number of daily coronavirus cases in Delhi have come down since hitting a peak on June 23. Currently, it has recorded 1,56,139 cases and 4,235 deaths, much more than its neighbouring Uttar Pradesh.

West Bengal follows the national capital, with 1,25,922 cases and 2,581 deaths. Bihar, on the other hand, has logged 1,12,437 cases and 487 deaths. The situation in the state is worrisome as it is recording over 4,000 cases every day, though the number of deaths remain low.

Even though cases in most of the states are peaking, the silver lining remains to be the difference between recoveries and active cases which stands now at 14 lakh. The recovery rate has mounted to 73.91 per cent, while only 24.19 per cent of the total case are active.

India has scaled another new peak. For the first time, a record number of over nine lakh Covid tests have been conducted in a single day. With 9,18,470 COVID-19 tests in the last 24 hours, India is poised to see an exponential increase towards its resolve of testing 10 lakh samples daily. With this achievement, the cumulative tests have risen above 3.25 crore.

All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) Director Dr. Randeep Guleria, one of the country's leading medical experts, however, had recently warned that the coronavirus cases in the country have yet not hit the peak or even levelled off.

"These are trying times. It has tested the resilience of the nation. We have not reached the peak or started plateauing as far as cases are concerned," Guleria, who is also the part of a core team monitoring the pandemic, had said.