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New COVID-19 Cases: Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh – the five worst-affected states in the country – also reported the highest one-day increases of any state in the past 24 hours

More than 85,000 new Covid cases were reported across India in the past 24 hours, government data showed on Saturday, taking the total number of coronavirus cases in the country past the 59 lakh-mark. Over 1,000 deaths were also recorded in the past 24 hours, pushing the total number of deaths recorded since the pandemic began past 93,000. The number of recoveries reported in the past 24 hours is around 93,000 as well, taking the total number of people who have fought off the virus past 48 lakh. Around 13.4 lakh Covid tests were also conducted in the past 24 hours. India is the second worst-affected country by the Covid pandemic, second only to the United States in the total number of active cases

Here are the top 10 points in this big story:

1. India has recorded 59,03,932 coronavirus cases since the pandemic began in China’s Wuhan in December last year. Of these, 93,379 are deaths linked to the virus and 9,60,969 are active cases. In the past 24 hours 85,362 new cases and 1,089 deaths were recorded.
2. The national daily positivity rate (or the percentage of tests that are positive) is 6.3 per cent. The national mortality rate has remained at 1.5 per cent. The recovery rate has inched up to 82 per cent.
3. Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh – the five worst-affected states in the country – also reported the highest one-day increases of any state in the past 24 hours. Together these five states reported 43,457 new cases, or around 51 per cent of all new cases.
4. The five states reporting the most number of deaths in the past 24 hours are Maharashtra, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Punjab. Together these five states reported 726 deaths, or around 67 per cent of all deaths.
5. Maharashtra, the worst-affected state in the country, reported 17,794 cases and 416 deaths. Andhra Pradesh saw 7,073 new cases and 48 deaths. Tamil Nadu and Karnataka recorded 5,679 and 8,655 new cases, respectively. Tamil Nadu registered 72 deaths and Karnataka 86. Uttar Pradesh, the fifth-worst affected state, saw 4,256 cases and 84 deaths.
6. On Friday the Election Commission announced poll dates for the Bihar Assembly election – the first large-scale voting exercise to be held (anywhere in the world) amid the Covid pandemic. The poll body announced several measures to protect voters against infection while also making sure that those who have been infected and are undergoing treatment can vote safely.
7. The coronavirus lockdown has caused malnutrition to increase by two per cent among children in Maharashtra’s Palghar district. According to the state’s Women and Child Development Department, severe and moderate acute malnutrition cases went up from 2,399 in April to 2,459 in June in Palghar district, an increase of 2.5 per cent.
8. Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, who was admitted to a state-run hospital on Wednesday after testing positive for COVID-19, underwent plasma therapy at a private hospital in the national capital on Friday to help him fight the infectious virus. 
9. On Wednesday scientists in the US released a study of more than 5,000 genetic sequences of the novel coronavirus, which reveals the virus’s continual accumulation of mutations; one of these mutations may have made it more contagious. The study, which has yet to be peer-reviewed, did not, however, conclude that these mutations had made the virus deadlier.
10. The United Kingdom is planning to host clinical trials where volunteers are deliberately infected with the coronavirus to test the effectiveness of vaccine candidates, the Financial Times reported Wednesday, citing people involved in the project. The so-called “challenge trials” are expected to begin in January at a quarantine facility in London, with about 2,000 participants having signed up so far.