India breached the one-lakh-mark in daily new COVID-19 cases tally as it recorded 1,03,558 total infections on Sunday, the highest single-day rise since the pandemic hit in March last year. The total infections count now stands at 1,25,89,067. The death toll climbed to 1,64,623 on Sunday with 513 new fatalities.

This is the highest rise in coronavirus cases in a day since September 19, 2020, when Indian reported 93,337 fresh infections in a day. India has registered a steady rise in the number of new Covid cases for 26 straight days. The number had started declining since December last year and continued for five months before a surge again, which is described as a ‘second wave’

Maharashtra remains the worst affected state in the country with the highest single-day rise of 57,074 new infections on Sunday. The situation remains tense in Maharashtra as no other state in the country has detected more than 12,000 cases in a day till now as Maharashtra crossed the 50,000 mark on Sunday

Mumbai recorded the highest-ever single-day spike with 11,163 new infections, taking the total number of coronavirus cases in the financial capital to 4,52,445, Pune, on the other hand, reported 12,472 new cases on detected.

Apart from Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh detected 5,250 new cases on Sunday, reporting more than 5,000 cases two days in a row. The National Capital breached the 4,000-mark for the first time since December last year, recording 4,033 new infections on Sunday. Joining Delhi in the 4K club is Uttar Pradesh along with Karnataka as both the states 4,136 and 4,553 new cases respectively. Punjab also saw 3,006 new cases of infections on Sunday.

Maharashtra, Delhi, Punjab, Chhattisgarh, and Punjab are accounting for over 75 per cent of the country’s caseload.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday chaired a high-level review meeting amid the rising Covid tally in the second wave.

"It was emphasised that the reasons for the sharper rise in cases could be mainly attributed to the severe decline in compliance of Covid-appropriate behaviour primarily in terms of use of masks and maintaining '2 Gaj ki Doori', pandemic fatigue and lack of effective implementation of containment measures at the field level," an official statement said.