India reported a record 200,739 Covid-19 cases over the last 24 hours, according to data issued by the health ministry on Thursday.

Deaths stood at 1,038, taking the total to 173,123, the data showed.

The country’s total case load reached 14.1 million, just behind the United States that leads the global tally with 31.4 million cases.

After reporting less than 10,000 cases per day earlier this year, India has been the world's worst-hit country since April 2. The government blames here a widespread failure to heed curbs on movement and social interaction.

The rise in cases comes as India’s richest state, Maharashtra, the epicentre of the national second wave, is due to enter a full lockdown at midnight local time until the end of April to contain the spread. The state accounts for about a quarter of the country’s total coronavirus cases.

Elsewhere, over-stretched private hospitals are turning patients away, placing an increasing burden on government facilities.

Despite this, hundreds of thousands of devout Hindus gathered to bathe in the Ganges river in Uttarakhand state on Wednesday, the third major bathing day of the weeks-long Kumbh Mela festival.

There was little evidence of social distancing or mask-wearing, according to a Reuters witness.

More than a thousand cases have been reported in Haridwar district in the last two days, according to government data.