Coronavirus Outbreak: Highest single-day spike of 12,881 cases takes India's COVID-19 tally past 3.66 lakh

As the coronavirus cases in India continue to spread rapidly, India has now become the fourth worst-affected nation from the virus and also the biggest epicentre of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic in Asia.

With over 12,000 new cases reported in the last 24 hours, India's COVID-19 count on Thursday crossed the 3.66 lakh-mark, while the death toll has crossed the 12,000-mark as well.

At 9:30 AM on this day, the COVID-19 tally in the country has reached 3,66,946 cases, which includes 1,60,384 active cases; 1,94,325 cured, discharged, or migrated patients, and 12,237 deaths.

According to the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, as many as 12,881 new COVID-19 cases and 334 deaths were reported in the country in the last 24 hours, marking a significant spike. In fact, this is the highest spike in the country's COVID-19 tally as of yet.

Maharashtra continues to be the epicentre 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 1,16,752 positive cases of COVID-19 infection and 5,651 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 61,000-mark and the death toll has topped the 3,200-mark as well. At 9:30 AM on this day, the COVID-19 tally in Mumbai showed 61,587 cases and 3,244 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 50,193 cases, which overtook Delhi due to a recent massive spike in the number of cases. The national capital is third on the list with 47,102 cases.

After Delhi comes Gujarat, where the COVID-19 figure stands at 25,148 cases with 17,438 patients recovered and 1,561 fatalities. Uttar Pradesh has reported 15,181 cases of which 9,239 have recovered and 465 patients are dead.

Rajasthan has reported 13,626 positive cases so far of which 10,582 patients have recovered and 323 patients have lost their lives due to the virus. In West Bengal, as many as 12,300 people have confirmed COVID-19, of which 6,532 recovered and 506 people succumbed to it.

In Kerala, which reported the country's first COVID-19 case, 2,544 people have been detected positive for coronavirus so far.