COVID-19 updates|August 18, 2020, India has been reporting a higher daily surge in caseload for the past 12 days

India today reported a spike of 55,079 cases and 876 deaths in the last 24 hours. With this, the Covid-19 tally in the country rises to 27,02,743, including 6,73,166 active cases, 19,77,780 discharged or migrated and 51,797 deaths, Ministry of Health and Family
Welfare said.

The country- third worst-affected by the pandemic after the United States and Brazil - has been reporting a higher daily surge in caseload for the past 12 days, according to the World Health Organization data. 

In the wake of alarming rise in Covid-19 cases, Punjab government has imposed additional restrictions in Jalandhar, Ludhiana and Patiala from August 18 till further orders.

Drop in active cases in India for the second day in a row. -3,734 compared to the previous day. India's recovery rate is 73.2%. Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Bihar report biggest drop in active cases.

With the addition of 8,493 new COVID-19 cases, Maharashtra has crossed the six lakh mark. 228 more patients also succumbed to the virus, taking the total tally to 20,265. However, on a positive note, 11,391 patients were discharged from hospitals. Active cases stand at 1.55 lakh while 4.28 lakhs have beaten the virus. 

Some hospitals in Delhi have said they are seeing recovered coronavirus patients returning to them with recurrence of the infection. Earlier this month, the Delhi government-run Rajiv Gandhi Super Speciality Hospital saw two instances of patients with relapse of coronavirus, almost one-and-a-half months after they were cured of the infection. In both the instances of relapse, the patients had moderate symptoms.