India’s Covid-19 death toll crossed the 18,000 mark on Thursday in the middle of a huge surge in fresh infections. More than 22,000 new cases were recorded, almost 2,000 more than the previous single-day record of 20,060 on June 27, led by a substantial rush of cases in Maharashtra (6,330), Tamil Nadu (4,343), Karnataka (1,502) and Telangana (1,213).
Apart from these four states, Andhra Pradesh (845 brand-new cases), UP (817), Gujarat (681) and Bihar (478) r