India’s coronavirus count crosses 3 lakh mark but doubling rate improves
India on Friday reported a total Covid-19 tally of over three lakh cases, barely two weeks after the Centre announced lifting of the nationwide lockdown in phases and billed it Unlock-1. The country recorded over 10,000 new coronavirus cases in its highest single-day spike taking the tally to 3,01,579, according to data from Worldometer.
Maharashtra has the highest Covid-19 positive cases in India with 1,01,141 patients, followed by Tamil Nadu with 40,698 and national capital Delhi with 34,687. Maharashtra, accounting for almost one-third of the total coronavirus cases in the country remains the worst-hit state in India by the coronavirus pandemic. On Friday, the state recorded 3,493 new Covid-19 cases detected in the last 24 hours taking the total count past the 1lakh mark.
India now ranks the fourth-highest in the list of nations hit hard by the highly infectious disease. On Thursday, India overtook the United Kingdom to climb to the fourth place in the list of countries with a high concentration of coronavirus cases.
The country is now preceded only by Russia, Brazil and the United States. Russia currently has nearly 5 lakh cases and Brazil around 7.72 lakh. The United States, however, is the worst-hit country globally with more than 20 lakh Covid-19 positive cases.
For the first time since the outbreak of coronavirus, India on Friday recorded over 10,000 new cases and 396 deaths in a single day, even as the Centre advised all states to pay special attention to the emerging hotspots of Covid-19 and undertake all possible steps to curb the spread.
The death toll currently stands at 8,498 till Friday morning, the Union Health ministry data said.
The ministry also said the doubling time of coronavirus cases in India has improved to 17.4 days currently from 15.4 days a couple of weeks ago. At the time the lockdown was imposed on March 25, the doubling rate of coronavirus cases was 3.4 days, it said.
HT
