India has reported 75,760 cases of COVID-19 in the last 24 hours, marking the biggest daily rise in the country, according to Union Health Ministry data. The fresh cases have pushed the country's coronavirus tally to over 33.1 lakh cases. However, 25,23,771 patients have recovered from the infection in the country, taking the recovery rate to 76.24 per cent. Maharashtra remains the hardest-hit state in the pandemic, accounting for 7,18,711 cases. Maharashttra is followed by three southern states, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. India is the country with the third-highest coronavirus caseload in the world after the United States and Brazil.

Maharashtra on Wednesday reported a single-day highest spike of 14,888 coronavirus cases which took the case count to 7,18,711. The previous highest increase in the cases was 14,492, recorded on August 21. Tamil Nadu on Wednesday saw 5,958 fresh coronavirus cases that pushed the tally close to the four lakh-mark while 118 deaths took the death county to 6,839. Andhra Pradesh, the third worst-hit state, reported 10,830 fresh COVID-19 cases - a record high - and the total count shot up to 3,82,469. Karnataka has crossed a total of three lakh coronavirus cases. This comes just after the state government removed several regulations on people entering the state - from medical checks on entry to compulsory quarantine. Karnataka has consistently figured, for weeks now, in the list of top five states in India in terms of the total number of cases and number of new cases.

Meanwhile, the Phase II human clinical trial of the Oxford COVID-19 vaccine candidate, being manufactured by the Pune-based Serum Institute of India (SII), began at a medical college and hospital in the city on Wednesday. Two male volunteers were administered the vaccine at Bharti Vidyapeeth's Medical College and Hospital, a senior office-bearer of the hospital said.

COVID-19 can affect almost all organs, not just the lungs, and the initial symptoms may be totally unrelated to chest complaints, experts at the All India Institutes of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) said. The coronavirus pandemic has killed over 8.25 lakh people globally since it emerged in China late last year. Over 2.41 crore people have been infected with the novel coronavirus.