India reported 7,240 fresh Coronavirus cases on Thursday, nearly 40 per cent from the day ago, as infections soared sharply in states like Maharashtra and Kerala.

Daily coronavirus infections in India crossed 5,000 after 94 days (yesterday the country reported 5,233 cases), taking the total tally of active cases to 32,498, according to the Union Health Ministry. The country has 3,641 active cases of the viral infection, according to the government.

The number of deaths climbed to 5,24,723 with eight fresh fatalities, government data updated at 8 am showed. India has reported 4.31 crore Covid cases since the beginning of the pandemic.

On Wednesday Maharastra reported 2,701 fresh cases, its highest infection count since January 25. At least 42 per cent of the infections were reported from Mumbai. The western state has reported one case of B.A.5 variant.

Kerala reported 2,271 new cases in the last 24 hours. The southern state has reported 10, 805 new infections in one week.

India's COVID-19 tally had crossed the 20-lakh mark on August 7, 2020, 30 lakh on August 23, 40 lakh on September 5 and 50 lakh on September 16.

It went past 60 lakh on September 28, 70 lakh on October 11, crossed 80 lakh on October 29, 90 lakh on November 20 and surpassed the one-crore mark on December 19.

The country crossed the grim milestone of two crore on May 4 and three crore on June 23 last year.