India reports record 95K coronavirus cases in single day

India reported a record spike of COVID-19 cases within the past 24 hours, reaching 95,735 in a single day.

The total number of known cases for India jumped to 4,465,863 on Thursday, according to The Associated Press.

The capital city, New Delhi, saw the highest record surge of the country’s major cities, rising to 4,618 new cases within the past 24 hours, along with 19 more deaths.

India’s caseload is the second highest globally, just behind the United States’ total case count of 6.3 million known infections.

The Health Ministry said the surge in cases is due to scaling daily testing capacity above 1 million, though experts warn the virus is now spreading out of larger cities and into smaller villages and towns.

The ministry also reported 1,172 fatalities within the past 24 hours, bringing the total death toll from COVID-19 related causes to 75,062.

In March, India enforced a strict 21-day lockdown that successfully kept case reports relatively low compared to other nations across the globe.

After the country’s economy contracted by 23.9 percent in the second quarter, authorities were left with no options other than to reopen the economy.

While the growing number of cases in India is concerning, vaccine trials are still on a steady timeline for commencing vaccine trials in the country.

Despite the Serum Institute of India announcing a temporary halt to late-stage studies of AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine, officials said the trials’ schedule would not be impacted.

Trials for the AstraZeneca vaccine were paused in multiple countries following a “suspected serious adverse reaction” in a British recipient.

The Serum Institute is the world’s largest vaccine maker by volume and is mass-producing the COVID-19 vaccine for lower- and middle-income countries.

Health authorities in India said they would review and assess the information from the illness report, comparing and contrasting it from initial human clinical trials in India.