India on Friday, 2 April, reported 81,466 new coronavirus cases, taking the tally in the country to 1,23,03,131. The death toll increased by 469 to 1,63,396.
This is the biggest one-day rise in COVID cases since 2 October, when 81,484 cases were recorded.
According to the Union Health Ministry data, there are currently 6,14,696 active cases across the country, while 1,15,25,039 patients have been discharged so far, with 50,356 discharges reported in the last 24 hours.
A total of 24,59,12,587 samples have been tested for COVID-19 up to Thursday, 1 April, of which 11,13,966 samples were tested yesterday, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) said.
India's coronavirus curve had been steadily declining after reaching a peak of 90,000-plus cases in September. However, cases started increasing again rapidly over the last few weeks, with Maharashtra leading the surge.
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