In what could be worrying for India, daily cases of Covid-19 continued to inch upwards, this time registering a 59-day high of over 18,700 cases.

Maharashtra, for the second day in a row, registered more than 10,000 cases. Deaths from the virus, however, dropped to 99 after two days of 100-plus tolls.

India reported 18,765 new cases on Saturday (with Assam’s data yet to come in), the highest single-day tally since January 6. On Friday, 18,307 fresh cases were recorded.

India’s average number of cases has been rising uninterruptedly since February 14, reflecting a resurgence of the pandemic in several states after five months of overall decline at the national level.

Maharashtra reported 10,187 new cases, a day after hitting the 10,000 mark on Friday with 10,216. The state’s Pune district recorded as many as 1,925 cases, followed by 1,217 in Nagpur and 1,188 in Mumbai. Maharashtra also recorded 47 fatalities.

While Kerala added 2,791 cases, around the same as Friday’s count, Punjab numbers surged again. The state recorded 1,179 new cases, the second time in three days that the tally crossed 1,000. This was the highest single-day count in Punjab since October 1

Cases also zoomed in neighbouring Haryana, which reported its highest tally of 323 since December 30. In Chandigarh, too, fresh cases surged to 122, the highest since December 1.

Karnataka, another state reporting a spike recorded 580 new cases and five more fatalities on Saturday. It had reported 677 cases on the previous day. Of the fresh cases, Bengaluru Urban accounted for 367.

Cases were inching up in several other states. Tamil Nadu recorded 562 new infections of the virus, Gujarat 571, Madhya Pradesh 467, Delhi 321, Rajasthan 233, Bengal 259. In each of these states, Saturday’s tally was the highest since different dates in the month of January. Following a spike in cases, the Rajasthan government has decided to set up checkposts at the entry points of each district.