NEW DELHI 

India registered 465 deaths and 15,968 new coronavirus infections, the highest single-day spike, in the last 24 hours on Wednesday, according to the Health Ministry.

The tally of COVID-19 cases rose to 456,183 and the death toll to 14,476.

The western state of Maharashtra still remains the worst-affected state with 139,010 cases, with 6,531 fatalities from the disease so far.

The national capital Delhi recorded 3,947 new infections over the past 24 hours, taking the toll to 66,602. The national capital reported 2,301 COVID-19 deaths so far. As many as 39,313 patients have recovered.

According to the Indian Council of Medical Research, 215,195 more samples were tested for COVID-19, the highest in a 24 hour-period. Over 7.35 million tests were conducted in the country by Tuesday.

Meanwhile, the council has revised its coronavirus testing strategy again to include symptomatic individuals. Earlier, it advised testing only for symptomatic individuals in hospitals, containment zones and hotspots, contacts of confirmed cases, healthcare and frontline workers and those with history of international travel.

In the southern state of Tamil Nadu, the government has announced a complete lockdown for the city of Madurai from Wednesday.

Local authorities will carry out door-to-door surveys in every household of the city to identify residents with COVID-19 symptoms.