India's COVID-19 cases cross 6-lakh mark, last one lakh recorded in just 5 days; death toll nears 18,000

New Delhi | Jagran News Desk: India’s COVID-19 caseload on Thursday crossed another grim milestone of 6 lakh after recording 19,148 new infections in the last 24 hours. Meanwhile, 434 fatalities were reported in last one day, taking country’s death toll to 17,834.  

It is for the sixth consecutive day that coronavirus cases have increased by more than 18,000. Nearly 4 lakh cases were reported in June alone making it the worst month for the country prompting some states to go for varying degrees of lockdown.

India reported its first case of coronavirus on January 30 from Kerala when a student who had returned from Wuhan, China tested positive. It is now the fourth worst-affected country in terms of cases after the US, Brazil and Russia.

The country reported its first 1 lakh cases in 111 days and crossed the 2-lakh mark in next 15 days. After 10 days, the coronavirus cases in India crossed the 3 lakh-mark while it crossed the 4 lakh-mark in the next seven days. The five-lakh case mark was reached on June 27. 

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Maharashtra recorded the biggest single-day spike of 5,537 new COVID-19 cases on Wednesday, taking its overall tally to 1,80,298. Before this, the highest single-day spike in the state was registered on June 28 with 5,493 cases.

Maharashtra's COVID-19 recovery rate is 51.67 per cent, while the fatality rate is 4.47 per cent. Currently, 6,08,660 people are kept in home quarantine and 38,396 in institutional quarantine.

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With his state accounting for the highest number of COVID-19 cases and fatalities, Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray said he prayed for a miracle to overcome the coronavirus crisis.

Delhi recorded 2,442 fresh COVID-19 cases on Wednesday, taking the tally in the city over the 89,000-mark, while the death toll from the disease mounted to 2,803. On June 23, the national capital had reported the highest single-day spike of 3,947 cases.

Recently, Delhi had eclipsed Mumbai as the city worst-hit by the coronavirus pandemic in the country.
Sixty-one fatalities have been recorded in the last 24 hours. 

Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said the COVID-19 situation has been brought under control for now with the "combined efforts" of Delhi government, Centre and other organisations, but cautioned people against any lapse in social and personal behaviour that may again lead to a rise in cases.

In a bid to halt the rapid surge in new infections, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Manipur and Nagaland are among the states which have extended the lockdown beyond June 30 for varying periods up to July 31 without any more relaxations.

The second phase of 'Unlock ' also came into force from Wednesday after the month-long 'Unlock 1', a graded exit from the national lockdown imposed on March 25, ended on Tuesday.

Though there will be "phased re-opening" of activities that had been barred to contain the spread of coronavirus, educational institutions, Metro rail services, cinema halls and gyms will continue to remain shut
Political, academic, cultural, religious, sporting events and other large congregations will also continue to be prohibited in 'Unlock 2' phase.

Domestic and international (under the Vande Bharat mission) flights and passenger trains, already operational in a limited manner, will be further expanded in a calibrated manner, according to the Ministry of Home Affairs(MHA) guidelines.

Posted By: Abhinav Gupta