India reports 68,020 new COVID-19 cases, 32,231 discharges, and 291 deaths in the last 24 hours, as per the Union Health Ministry. The death count increased to 1,61,843 with 291 new fatalities. The total number of samples tested up to 28th March is 24,18,64,161 including 9,13,319 samples tested yesterday: Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).The worrying aspect is the active cases, which again crossed the half a million mark after 35,498 new cases were added in the last 24 hours, the health ministry data showed. The active case count now stands at 5,21,808.In just the past week, the country has added more than 178,000 active cases to its tally, the highest ever in the country for any week since the start of the outbreak in March last year.
The health ministry has said that eight states and union territories have been leading the surge in Covid-19 cases in the country. Among them is worst-hit Maharashtra. On Sunday, Maharashtra reported 40,414 fresh coronavirus positive cases, the highest rise so far in a single day, taking its tally beyond 27 lakh to 27,13,875, the state health department said. Its capital Mumbai also reported the highest number of new cases in a day on Sunday, by adding 6,933 infections, taking its overall tally to 3,98,724.The health ministry has said that Maharashtra also has the highest positivity rate - of 22,78 per cent - which is way above the national average of 5.04 per cent. Apart from Maharashtra, the other seven states and union territories (UTs) with higher positivity rate than national average are Chandigarh (11.85 per cent positivity rate), Punjab (8.45 per cent), Goa (7.03 per cent), Puducherry (6.85 per cent), Chhattisgarh (6.79 per cent), Madhya Pradesh (6.65 per cent) and Haryana (5.41 per cent).