NEW DELHI: Both the number of deaths due to Covid-19 as well as new cases reported across the country surged to a new single-day high on Monday, with 11 people succumbing to the infection and 157 fresh cases reported from the states.The coronavirus death toll in the country is now 43 while the total number of cases hase risen to 1,280, as per reports till late Monday night. Telangana reported the maximum five deaths followed by Maharashtra (three), Madhya Pradesh (two) and West Bengal (one).The previous highest single-day count of cases was on Sunday, when 130 new infections were reported from the states. On Monday, Kerala confirmed maximum the 32 new cases, followed by 25 cases in Delhi, 17 each in Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu and 16 new Covid-19 from UP. The health ministry has confirmed total 1,251 cases and 32 deaths so far.Many of the new Covid-19 cases reported in Delhi and Tamil Nadu are linked to a religious congregation organised in New Delhi by an Islamic missionary group, Tablighi Jamaat. In Delhi, for example, 18 of the 25 new cases were among followers of the Jamaat who were staying in its headquarters in NIzamuddin West. This includes some foreigners also who came to India in first week of March. More than 300 other followers of the Jamaat are admitted in the isolation ward of Lok Nayak hospital which is run by the state.In Telangana, five new deaths confirmed on Monday have been linked to the religious congregation in New Delhi too. The state government has launched a massive operation to locate anyone who may have come in the contact with the deceased and others who had visited Delhi to attend the event. Tamil Nadu has reported 17 new cases; all of them had visited Delhi for the Jamaat event.Kerala reported fewer cases on Monday but its total tally remains the highest, 234, in the country. Maharashtra has reported 220 Covid-19 cases so far. The Covid-19 mortality in Maharashtra is also high.Two octogenarians from Mumbai and a 50-year-old man from Pune succumbed to covid-19 on Monday, pushing the state’s death toll to ten. West Bengal reported its second death, a 44-yr-old woman, on Monday.After a day of zero new Covid-19 patients, Madhya Pradesh reported eight Covid-19 cases on Monday, with seven in Indore and one in Ujjain. Two of the patients died – one each in either city, officials said. MP’s total tally is now 47 with four deaths.At least 16 new coronavirus positive cases were reported in UP in last 24 hours taking the state’s tally to 96 on Monday. Of the new cases, seven were reported in Noida, six in Meerut and one each in Lucknow, Agra and Bulandshahr.The total cases in Gautam Buddh Nagar have gone up to 38 while 19 cases have been reported from Meerut. Agra and Lucknow have reported 11 and 9 cases, respectively. Noida-Ghaziabad and Meerut have emerged as Covid-19 hotspots in UP as 61% of total cases have been reported from these three districts. Rajasthan reported 10 cases of Covid-19, highest in a single day in the state, on Monday.