NEW DELHI, June 24, 2022 (BSS) -India reported 17,336 fresh Coronavious cases in the last 24 hours for the first time in over four months.

  As the country is witnessing an upward tick in infections amid fear of a fresh wave, the 24-hour figure indicates a massive 30 per cent jump since on Thursday's infections.

  Besides, 13 fresh Covid-linked fatalities were also reported during the period taking the total number of lives lost since the beginning of the pandemic to 5,24,954.

  The number of active cases in India went up by over 4,200 to reach 88,284 - or 0.19 per cent of the total cases. A total of 13,029 people recovered from the deadly infection in the last 24 hours, taking the recovery rate to 98.60 per cent.

  Of the total 24-hour infections, Maharashtra reported 5,218 new coronavirus cases yesterday while Delhi logged 1,934, double of what it reported a day earlier.

  Amid the rising cases, Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya convened a meeting of the senior health officials yesterday and directed them to continue to focus on surveillance and whole genome sequencing to scan any possible mutations, reports said.