India records a new high of 1,684 new Covid-19 cases in last 24 hours

India today recorded 1,684 new Covid-19 positive cases in the last 24 hours, the highest in that time span so far, bringing the total number of cases to 23,077.

The surge comes at a time when the country's health ministry maintains that the outbreak is under control.

The figures were available at the daily media briefing by the ministry in New Delhi today.

The Ministry Joint Secretary Lav Aggarwal said a robust surveillance system is closely monitoring around 9.45 lakh suspected Covid-19 cases across the country, our new Delhi correspondent reports.

"We are implementing community surveillance at district and state levels to check community spread of coronavirus," he said.

Aggarwal said the decision to impose lockdown was timely and it was effective in controlling spread of the coronavirus.

Without the ongoing 40-day lockdown in India, there would have been an estimated one lakh Covid-19 cases, he added.

According to Aggarwal, the doubling rate of the cases now stands at 10 days.

He said no new case of coronavirus has been reported from 80 districts in the last 14 days, adding in 20.57 percent of the total cases, patients have made recoveries.

The number of coronavirus cases in the country has increased to 23,077, including 718 deaths, and 37 people died of the disease in the last 24 hours, NDTV reports quoting India's Union Health Ministry.