Around 8,000 more cases were seen in the daily spike as 63,509 fresh infection were reported in 24 hours, taking the total Covid tally to 72,39,389 on Wednesday. After 55,342 new cases were reported on Tuesday giving a sense of a downward trend, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) gave a jolt to general expectation as ICMR DG Balram Bhargava informed that so far there has been three cases of re-infection of Covid-19 identified in India -- two in Mumbai and one in Ahmedabad. There were 730 deaths in one day taking the overall toll to 1,10,586.

Out of the total cases, 8,26,876 are currently active, 63,01,927 have been discharged as India showed an indication of declining average daily cases for the past five weeks. While the recovery rate stands at 87.05 per cent, the fatality rate is 1.53 per cent, the data from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said. Three states account for maximum caseload in the country -- besides Maharashtra which continues to be the worst-hit with a total of 15,43,837 cases including 40,701 deaths; it is Karnataka and Kerala. In fact Kerala, which till two weeks back, did not feature in the top list -- is now in the third spot.