India recorded 38,792 new Covid-19 cases in the last 24 hours, which took the cumulative infection tally in the country to over 3.09 crore, according to the Union health ministry's bulletin on Wednesday morning. With 624 deaths in the last 24 hours, the overall death toll now stands at 4.1 lakh.
After Maharashtra, Kerala, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh have the highest number of infections. India is the second worst-hit country in the world after the US.
The spike comes a day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi cautioned against a third wave. The Health Ministry has urged people to take predictions about a third wave of Covid seriously. "People are taking predictions about the third wave like weather prediction reports, very casually. The third wave predictions have to be taken very seriously," said Lav Agarwal, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Health at a press briefing on Tuesday.