The total number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 infection in India crossed the 96,000-mark on Sunday, while the death toll has topped the 3,000-mark as well. At 9:30 AM on this day, the COVID-19 tally in the country has reached 96,169 cases, which includes 56,316 active cases; 36,824 cured, discharged, or migrated patients, and 3,029 deaths.

According to the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, as many as 5,242 new COVID-19 cases and 157 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. The last highest jump was of a spike of about 4,987 cases yesterday, thereby marking two significant and consecutive highest jumps in the country's COVID-19 tally.

Yesterday, the COVID-19 tally in India had crossed the 90,000-mark, while the death toll had already topped the 2,800-mark. However, the recovery rate this morning stands at 37.51%, the Health Ministry informed.

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 33,053 positive cases of infection and 1,198 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 20,000-mark and the death toll has topped the 730-mark as well. At 9:30 AM on this day, the COVID-19 tally in Mumbai showed 20,150 cases and 734 deaths. The city had reported as many as 1,571 cases on Sunday alone.

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 11,380 cases, which overtook Tamil Nadu due to a recent massive spike in the number of cases. Tamil Nadu is third on the list with 11,224 cases. In fact, the COVID-19 case tallies in these two states are extremely close and are likely to surpass each other at any moment.

After Tamil Nadu comes Delhi, where the COVID-19 figure stands at 9,755 with 4,202 patients recovered and 148 fatalities. Rajasthan has reported 5,202 cases of which 3,055 have recovered and 131 patients are dead.

Madhya Pradesh has reported 4,977 positive cases so far of which 2,403 patients have recovered and 248 patients have lost their lives due to the virus. In Uttar Pradesh, as many as 4,464 people have confirmed COVID-19, of which 2,636 recovered and 112 people succumbed to it.

In Kerala, which reported the country's first COVID-19 case, 602 people have been detected positive for coronavirus so far.

As the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic outbreak continues to spread like wildfire in India, the central and state governments are respectively amping up all of their efforts to check potential contamination.

The fresh guidelines issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) have permitted the movement of public transport both within the state and between other states with mutual consent, more than 50 days since the nationwide lockdown was imposed to curb COVID-19 spread.

According to the central government's recent order, all activities will be allowed in green, orange, red, and buffer zones, except the ones "specifically prohibited". The entire range of products on online shopping sites are now open for all citizens, irrespective of them residing in red, orange, green, or buffer zones, with the sole exception of containment zones, where e-commerce activity has still not been permitted.

MHA has also ordered the opening of salons and barbershops in all zones except containment zones. Earlier, salons were only allowed in green and orange zones. However, salons in shopping malls are still prohibited from operating.

As India enters its fourth phase of coronavirus disease (COVID-19)-necessitated nationwide lockdown starting today till May 31, new guidelines issued by the central government pertaining to Lockdown 4.0 have been enforced. States/UTs and district authorities are taking the call on classifying and mapping red, orange, green, containment, and buffer zones.