Coronavirus Outbreak: India's COVID-19 case tally crosses 70,000-mark; death toll nears 2,300

The total number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 infection in India crossed the 70,000-mark on Tuesday, while the death toll is nearing the 2,300-mark. At 9 AM on this day, the COVID-19 tally in this country has reached 70,756 cases, which includes 46,008 active cases, 22,455 cured, discharged or migrated patients, and 2,293 deaths.

According to the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, as many as 3,604 new COVID-19 cases and 87 deaths were reported in the country in the last 24 hours, marking a significant spike. However, the spike is less than that of yesterday, when India recorded a marked increase of as many as 4,213 COVID-19 cases in 24 hours.

Yesterday, the COVID-19 tally in India had crossed the 67,000-mark, while the death toll had already topped the 2,200-mark. However, the recovery rate this morning stands at 31.73%, which is a significant development over last weekend's 26.59%, the Health Ministry informed.

In India, the state of Maharashtra has emerged as the epicenter of the coronavirus spread where the number of cases witnessed a massive spike recently. According to the Health Ministry, Maharashtra has the highest number of cases with around 23,401 positive cases of infection and 868 deaths.

Notably, Mumbai, the financial capital of the country, has become the hotbed of the coronavirus spread in the state where the number of cases has crossed the 14,500-mark and the death toll is over 520. At 9 AM on this day, the COVID-19 tally in Mumbai showed 14,521 cases and 528 deaths.

One of the real challenges in Mumbai is controlling the disease contamination in Asia's biggest slum -- Dharavi, which is an extremely densely-populated region.

Maharashtra is followed by Gujarat with 8,542 cases. Tamil Nadu is third on the list with 8,002 cases; the state recently overtook Delhi as it registered a high number of COVID-19 cases and crossed the 8,000-mark on this day.

After Tamil Nadu comes Delhi, where the COVID-19 figure stands at 7,233 with 2,129 patients recovered and 73 fatalities. Rajasthan has reported 3,988 cases of which 2,324 have recovered and 113 patients are dead.

Madhya Pradesh has reported 3,785 positive cases so far of which 1,747 patients have recovered and 221 patients have lost their lives due to the virus. In Uttar Pradesh, as many as 3,573 people have confirmed COVID-19, of which 1,758 recovered and 80 people succumbed to it.

In Kerala, which reported the country's first COVID-19 case, 520 people have been detected positive for coronavirus so far.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi conducted a meeting on Monday via video conferencing with the Chief Ministers of all the states to discuss the next stage in the exit from the nationwide lockdown. He also took feedback from the states on further easing of restrictions on activities while gradually restarting economic activities in a phased manner.

Several of the state chiefs pointed out that with the return of migrants, there is a need to concentrate on strict implementation of the social distancing guidelines, usage of masks and sanitization in order to curb the spread through fresh infection, especially in rural areas. The chief ministers in their suggestions on the economy have also sought support to MSMEs, infrastructure projects like power, easing of interest rates on loans, and assured market access to the agricultural produce.

The Prime Minister requested all the Chief Ministers to share with him by 15th May, a broad strategy on how each one of them would want to deal with the lockdown regime in their particular states. "I want states to make a blueprint on how to deal with various nuances during and after the gradual easing of the lockdown”, he said.