India on Sunday reported 312 new coronavirus fatalities in the last 24 hours, the highest in around three months, taking the overall death toll to 1,61,552, said the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, adding that 62,714 new cases were reported during the same period, the biggest one-day spike since October last year.

The Union Health Ministry also said that 28,739 people were discharged from hospitals in the last 24 hours, taking the total number of recoveries to 1,13,23762 — a recovery rate of 94.59 per cent.

Currently, as per the Health Ministry, the active number of coronavirus cases in India stands at 4,86,310 while 6,02,69,782 people have been vaccinated against the deadly pathogen.

The continuous spike in coronavirus cases since the beginning of February has sparked fears among the authorities, forcing state and union territory (UT) governments to reimpose restrictions, including partial lockdowns and night curfews.

The advent of the festive season is also a concern for the authorities as they fear that cases can rise further if appropriate COVID behaviour is not followed. On Saturday, Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan also held a meet with 12 states and UTs showing a spike in cases and presented a five-fold containment strategy to control the spread of the infection.

During the meeting, the Health Secretary also asked the affected states and UTs to increase testing as he highlighted that cases are rising due to the laxity among everyone regarding COVID-appropriate behaviour.

“One infected person could spread COVID-19 to an average of 406 other individuals in a 30-day window without restrictions which could be reduced to just 15 by decreasing physical exposure to 50 per cent and to a further 2.5 (average) by decreasing physical exposure to 75 per cent,” the Health Ministry highlighted.