The death toll also climbed to 2,415, the federal Health Ministry said.
Maharashtra reported a new high of 54 deaths, of which Mumbai accounted for a record 40.
The number of positive cases across the state also achieved a new single-day spike of 1,495.
The state’s death toll has now shot up to 975 and the total number of coronavirus patients increased to 25,922.
Mumbai’s Dharavi slum continued to be a major hotspot and a headache for the authorities, notching 66 new cases, taking the total number of patients to 1,028, and 40 deaths so far.
There were six deaths in Pune, two each in Jalgaon, Solapur and Aurangabad, and one each in Palghar and Ratnagiri.
Mumbai also recorded its fifth and the state its eighth police victim when a 57-year-old policeman of Navi Mumbai succumbed to Covid-19. Over 1,000 policemen have tested positive and several thousands more are in quarantine around the state.
Gujarat has 8,903 cases and Tamil Nadu 8,718. Gujarat also reported 537 deaths and Madhya Pradesh 225.
At least 7,639 people in Delhi have been infected with the highly contagious virus.
Other states which have reported more than 3,000 cases are Rajasthan (4,126), Madhya Pradesh (3,986) and Uttar Pradesh (3,664).
In Chennai, officials said the higher rate of testing has resulted in an increased number of positive cases. As of yesterday, a total of over 266,000 samples have been sent for testing, the Health Department said.
For the past several days, Tamil Nadu has been testing over 11,000 people a day.
Health Minister C Vijayabaskar said Tamil Nadu tests the highest number of people per day in the country.
“It is not possible to prevent the spread of a contagious virus. What is possible is to delay its rapid spread. If that is done diligently, hitting the peak could be further delayed or the peak may not be achieved,” K Kolanda Swamy, who recently retired as director of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, told IANS.
According to the Health Department, the spike in the number of Covid-19 cases outside Chennai is attributed to ‘Koyambedu Cluster’ – those who had business/worked in/visited the vegetable market, or their contacts.
In Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said the state has reported 10 more Covid-19 positive cases, taking the total number of people under treatment to 41.
“Of the 10 new cases, four returned from the Middle East while two came from Chennai,” Vijayan said in a Facebook post.
Meanwhile in Karnataka, two Covid patients, a 60-year-old man from Kalaburagi and a 58-year-old woman from Dakshina Kannada, succumbed to the virus.