Coronavirus Outbreak: India's death toll tops 4,000-mark; case tally crosses 1.38 lakh; highest spike yet

As many as 6,977 new COVID-19 cases and 154 deaths were reported in the country in the last 24 hours

The total number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 infection in India crossed the 1.38 lakh-mark on Monday, while the death toll has topped the 4,000-mark as well. At 9:30 AM on this day, the COVID-19 tally in the country has reached 1,38,845 cases, which includes 77,103 active cases; 57,720 cured, discharged, or migrated patients, and 4,021 deaths.

According to the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, as many as 6,977 new COVID-19 cases and 154 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 6,767 cases yesterday and of 6,654 cases the day before that and even a jump of 6,088 cases the previous day, thereby marking significant and consecutive highest jumps in the country's COVID-19 tally for the major part of the last week.

Yesterday, the COVID-19 tally in India had crossed the 1.3 lakh-mark, while the death toll had already topped the 3,800-mark as well. However, the recovery rate this morning stands at 41.57%, 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 50,231 positive cases of infection and 1,635 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 30,000-mark and the death toll is closing in on the 1,000-mark as well. At 9:30 AM on this day, the COVID-19 tally in Mumbai showed 30,542 cases and 988 deaths.The city reported as many as 1,725 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 Tamil Nadu with 16,277 cases, which overtook Gujarat due to a recent massive spike in the number of cases. Gujarat is third on the list with 14,063 cases.

After Gujarat comes Delhi, where the COVID-19 figure stands at 13,418 with 6,540 patients recovered and 261 fatalities. Rajasthan has reported 7,100 cases of which 3,856 have recovered and 163 patients are dead.

Madhya Pradesh has reported 6,665 positive cases so far of which 3,408 patients have recovered and 290 patients have lost their lives due to the virus. In Uttar Pradesh, as many as 6,268 people have confirmed COVID-19, of which 3,538 recovered and 161 people succumbed to it.

In Kerala, which reported the country's first COVID-19 case, 848 people have been detected positive for coronavirus so far.

Over the major part of the last week, the country marked significant and consecutive highest jumps in the COVID-19 tally.

Interestingly, even though the virus tally continues to spike, new guidelines issued by the central government pertaining to Lockdown 4.0 remain enforced. Several restrictions have been lifted, which includes permitting transport services, reopening of shops, and resuming online shopping. According to the central government's most recent order, all activities, except the ones "specifically prohibited", will be allowed in green, orange, red, and buffer zones, which continue to be classified by the States/UTs and district authorities.

All domestic flights are also set to resume in India from today, while international flights are to start soon as well, the central government has informed as part of its gradual reboot of air travel services in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak.

It is now increasingly becoming likely that India, although well into the fourth phase of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19)-necessitated nationwide lockdown, is quickly becoming one of the biggest COVID-19 hotspots in the world.