The Delhi High Court Thursday expressed displeasure over the rising number of Covid-19 cases in the national capital and observed that the city could soon become the “corona capital of the country”.

Delhi recorded its highest single-day spike of 6,842 new coronavirus cases and its total count of the number of active cases hit 409,000.

A bench of Justices Hima Kohli and Subramonium Prasad said the Delhi government has gone completely haywire on the pandemic.

The bench said the AAP government took the health of citizens for a ride and it will deal with it separately.

The high court said the Delhi government made many claims that they are topping charts in testing but the number of cases has overshot.

"The city could soon become Corona capital of the country. Thanks to the number of cases shooting up," the bench said and added We are going to take it very seriously.

The remarks were made by the bench while hearing a bunch of petitions relating to non-payment of salaries to doctors, paramedical staff, safai karamcharis, teachers and retired engineers and others, employed with North Delhi Municipal Corporation.

Delhi's daily Covid figures had been oscillating in the 4,000-6,000-cases range for the last few weeks, during which it reported record numbers on several days. It, however, breached the 6,000-mark on Tuesday, forcing the Delhi government to admit the third wave.

The surge in cases comes as Delhi appears to be heading for a cold wave. The minimum temperature dropped to 10 degrees Celsius -- a record low this season.

Along with the mercury, a huge drop has been recorded in the capital's air quality too.

India's Covid-19 tally climbed to 83.64 lakh with 50,210 new cases in a day, while 77,11,809 people have recuperated so far, pushing the national recovery rate to 92.20 per cent, according to the Union Health Ministry data.

The total coronavirus cases mounted to 83,64,086 and the death toll climbed to 1,24,315, with the virus claiming 704 lives in a span of 24 hours in the country, the data updated at 8 am on Thursday showed.

The Covid-19 case fatality rate was recorded at 1.49 per cent.

There are 5,27,962 active cases of coronavirus infection in the country which comprises 6.31 per cent of the total caseload, the data stated.

According to the ICMR, a cumulative total of 11,42,08,384 samples have been tested up to November 4, with 12,09,425 samples being tested on Wednesday.

The Covid-19 tally had crossed the 20-lakh mark on August 7, 30 lakh on August 23 and 40 lakh on September 5. It went past 50 lakh on September 16, 60 lakh on September 28, 70 lakh on October 11 and crossed 80 lakh on October 29.

Of the 704 new fatalities reported, 300 are from Maharashtra, 55 from West Bengal, 51 from Delhi, 50 from Chhattisgarh, 34 from Karnataka, 30 from Tamil Nadu and 28 from Kerala.

Out of the 1,24,315 deaths recorded so far in the country, 44,548 are from Maharashtra followed by 11,281 from Karnataka, 11,244 from Tamil Nadu, 7,104 from Uttar Pradesh, 7,068 from West Bengal, 6,744 from Andhra Pradesh, 6,703 from Delhi, 4,259 from Punjab and 3,737 from Gujarat.

The Health Ministry stressed that more than 70 per cent of the deaths occurred due to comorbidities. "Our figures are being reconciled with the Indian Council of Medical Research," the ministry said on its website, adding that state-wise distribution of figures is subject to further verification and reconciliation.