Maharashtra's COVID-19 tally is now more than that of China

As the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic outbreak continues to spread like wildfire across India, Maharashtra has emerged as the epicenter of the virus spread where the number of cases has witnessed an even large spike recently. As of 8 AM on Monday, the total number of positive cases of COVID-19 infection in the state is nearing the 86,000-mark, which is well above the official COVID-19 tally of China, where the virus is believed to have originated.

According to the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Maharashtra has the highest number of cases in India with 85,975 positive cases of infection and 3,060 deaths. As many as 3,007 new COVID-19 cases were reported from the state in the past 24 hours.

If we compare this data to the global coronavirus statistics provided by the Baltimore-based John Hopkins University's Coronavirus Resource Center, it can very well be seen that Maharashtra's tally is more than that of China. According to the varsity's statistics, the total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in China is 84,191 (as provided by the country's official state media, Xinhua).

Notably, Mumbai, the financial capital of the country, has become the hotbed of the coronavirus spread in the state of Mahrashtra, where the number of cases has crossed the 48,000-mark and the death toll has topped the 1,600-mark as well. At 8 AM on this day, the COVID-19 tally in Mumbai showed 48,774 cases and 1,638 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.

Meanwhile, another concern in Maharashtra is the outbreak of the virus particularly among the police forces. Over 3,000 police personnel in the state have till now tested positive for COVID-19, of which 30 cops have lost their lives. Yesterday, reports quoted state home minister Anil Deshmukh, who said that it was unfortunate that police personnel constitute the highest number of COVID-19 fatalities in the state among frontline workers.

Notably, the coronavirus cases in India continue to spread rapidly as the country has marked significant and consecutive highest jumps in the COVID-19 tally over a major part of the past two weeks. With nearly 10,000 new cases reported in the last 24 hours, India's COVID-19 count on Sunday hit a new high, crossing the 2.57 lakh-mark, while the death toll has crossed 7,200 as well.

Shopping malls, religious places, hotels, and restaurants are now set to reopen in most states from today after more than two months of sustained lockdown. The current phase of re-opening, called 'Unlock 1', takes an economic focus. The government intends on being smart about implementing the lockdown in select places so that the economic activity of the country, as a whole, does not take any more hits.

The Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare had also released the standard operating procedure (SOPs) for malls, restaurants, and hotels as they plan to open these establishments under relaxed guidelines from today. But a lot of details were also left to the discretion of the states to finetune.