COVID-19 tally in India crosses 1.73 lakh-mark, nearly 5,000 deaths; highest spike of 7,964 cases in 24 hours

The total number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 infection in India crossed the 1.73 lakh-mark on Monday, while the death toll neared the 5,000-mark as well. At 9:30 AM on this day, the COVID-19 tally in the country has reached 1,73,763 cases, which includes 86,422 active cases; 82,370 cured, discharged, or migrated patients, and 4,971 deaths.

According to the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, as many as 7,964 new COVID-19 cases and 265 deaths were reported in the country in the last 24 hours, marking a significant spike. In fact, this is the highest spike in India's COVID-19 tally so far.

Maharashtra continues to be the epicenter of the coronavirus spread where the number of cases has witnessed an even large spike recently. According to the Health Ministry, Maharashtra has the highest number of cases with 62,228 positive cases of infection and 2,098 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 is closing in on the 37,000-mark and the death toll has crossed the 1,170-mark as well. At 11 AM on this day, the COVID-19 tally in Mumbai showed 36,932 cases and 1,173 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 Tamil Nadu with 20,246 cases, which overtook Delhi due to a recent massive spike in the number of cases. The national capital is third on the list with 17,386 cases.

After Delhi comes Gujarat, where the COVID-19 figure stands at 15,944 with 8,611 patients recovered and 980 fatalities. Rajasthan has reported 8,365 cases of which 5,244 have recovered and 184 patients are dead.

Madhya Pradesh has reported 7,645 positive cases so far of which 4,269 patients have recovered and 334 patients have lost their lives due to the virus. In Uttar Pradesh, as many as 7,445 people have confirmed COVID-19, of which 4,410 recovered and 201 people succumbed to it.

In Kerala, which reported the country's first COVID-19 case, 1,151 people have been detected positive for coronavirus so far.

Over the major part of the last week, the country marked significant and consecutive highest jumps in the COVID-19 tally.

Interestingly, even though the virus tally continues to spike, new guidelines issued by the central government pertaining to Lockdown 4.0 remain enforced. Several restrictions have been lifted, which includes permitting transport services, reopening of shops, and resuming online shopping. According to the central government's most recent order, all activities, except the ones "specifically prohibited", will be allowed in green, orange, red, and buffer zones, which continue to be classified by the States/UTs and district authorities.

All domestic flights are also set to resume in India from today, while international flights are to start soon as well, the central government has informed as part of its gradual reboot of air travel services in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak.

It is now increasingly becoming likely that India, although well into the fourth phase of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19)-necessitated nationwide lockdown, is quickly becoming one of the biggest COVID-19 hotspots in the world.