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 epicenter of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic in Asia.
With over 15,400 new cases reported in the last 24 hours, India's COVID-19 count on Sunday crossed the four lakh-mark, while the death toll has crossed the 13,200-mark as well.
At 9:30 AM on this day, the COVID-19 tally in the country has reached 4,10,461 cases, which includes 1,69,451 active cases; 2,27,756 cured, discharged, or migrated patients, and 13,254 deaths.
According to the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, as many as 15,413 new COVID-19 cases and 306 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 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 1,28,205 positive cases of COVID-19 infection and 5,984 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 64,000-mark and the death toll has topped the 3,400-mark as well. At 9:30 AM on this day, the COVID-19 tally in Mumbai showed 64,139 cases and 3,425 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 56,845 cases. Delhi is third on the list with 56,746 cases and is looking to soon take up the second place due to a recent massive surge in the number of cases.
After Delhi comes Gujarat, where the COVID-19 figure stands at 26,737 cases with 18,702 patients recovered and 1,639 fatalities. Uttar Pradesh has reported 17,135 cases of which 10,369 have recovered and 529 patients are dead.
Rajasthan has reported 14,537 positive cases so far of which 11,274 patients have recovered and 337 patients have lost their lives due to the virus. In West Bengal, as many as 13,531 people have confirmed COVID-19, of which 7,865 recovered and 540 people succumbed to it.
In Kerala, which reported the country's first COVID-19 case, 3,040 people have been detected positive for coronavirus so far.
Earlier this week, Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a consultation with chief ministers of all states to discuss ways to control the spread of the virus. He made it clear that the nationwide lockdown will not be imposed again. In fact, a period of unlocking has begun.
The central government still keeps denying that community transmission is taking place in India.