COVID-19 daily infections crossed the 100,000 mark in India for the first time, becoming only the second nation after the United States to record six-figure infections in a single day.
India recorded 103,844 new cases on Sunday, mainly due to a massive spike in the state of Maharashtra, which added a record 57,074 new infections, reports Times of India.
The latest tally is more than 5,000 higher than the previous peak of 98,795 cases reported on Sept 17 last year, according to the daily's database collated from state governments.
The second wave of the pandemic, which started more than 50 days ago, has now seen a higher peak in cases than the first wave.
The seven day average of daily cases has increased seven-fold, up from 11,364 on February 11 to 78,318 on April 4 — the sharpest rise since the start of the pandemic.
The number of active cases is also at a record high with over 700,000 cases, just three days after hitting 600,000.
For the week, India recorded 548,625 new cases.
TOI said deaths too registered the steepest ever weekly increase, with 2,974 fatalities over the past week. On Sunday, the country recorded 477 deaths from the virus.
Maharashtra seems to have become the current epicentre as it breached the 50,000 mark in daily cases for the first time on Sunday.
Its capital Mumbai registered an all-time high of 11,206 cases, pushing the state's total cases past the three million mark, nearly three-times higher than the next worst-hit state, Kerala, which has recorded over 1.1 million cases so far.
Besides Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh (3,178 cases) and Gujarat (2,875) also posted their highest daily cases to date on Sunday.
Twelve other states, led by Uttar Pradesh (4,164 cases) and Delhi (4,033), registered their highest single-day surge in infections this year.
Meanwhile, TOI reports that the rapid spread of Covid-19 in Maharashtra had forced the government to announce lockdown-like restrictions across the state from 8pm on Monday.
On weekends, a complete lockdown will be imposed.
A state government notification issued late on Sunday said all shops except essential services would remain shut till the end of the month, leaving people only Monday to buy non-essential goods this month.
Restaurants will be allowed to operate only takeaway and home delivery services during the day hours.
Night curfew will be imposed daily from 8pm to 7am, gatherings of five or more persons will be prohibited during daytime on weekdays.
No religious, social, cultural or political functions of any kind will be allowed.
Authorities said board exams will go on but all schools, colleges and private tuition classes would remain closed.
Government offices and public transport will run at 50 per cent capacity while private offices will have to implement work from home schemes.
In districts where elections are to be held, permissions are needed for any political gathering.
Bollywood film shooting will also be allowed if there is no crowding at shooting sites.
While issuing the new guidelines, the state has also changed its tag line from 'Mission Begin Again' to 'Break the Chain'.
The new guidelines said that a residential building would be declared a 'containment zone' if more than five Covid-19 cases are found.