For the second consecutive day, India's single-day rise of new Covid-19 cases on Sunday breached the country's highest tally of 2021 so far, while fatalities continue to increase at a worrisome rate. It recorded 25,320 cases, an increase of 438 cases from Saturday. There were 161 deaths in the last 24 hours, a hike of 21 fatalities from the previous day, the data shared by the Union Health Ministry showed. The cumulative tally of the cases has risen to 1,13,59,048 while the death toll has reached 1,58,607 in India.

However, 67 per cent of the country's cases were recorded from two states only. Maharashtra has reported 15,602 cases in the last 24 hours whereas Punjab recorded its highest single-day tally of this year with 1,515 new cases of Covid-19. "We used to record this much infections in October-November when the first wave was on decline in the country," Dr. Rajesh Bhaskar, Nodal officer for Covid-19 in Punjab told IANS. The infection level in the country is back to last year's December as it has soared to 1.85 from 1.55 per cent in a short interval.