India's COVID cases surged past the dreaded 5 lakh-mark on Friday with over 17,000 new infections while the death toll crossed 15,000 stoking concerns.
The number of COVID-19 cases increased by a record 17,296 in 24 hours for the first time on Friday pushing the total tally to 4,90,401, over half of which have been reported from 10 cities and districts, according to Union Health Ministry data published on Friday morning.
According to a tally by PTI, the total number of confirmed cases rerecorded in the country rose to 5,03,544 by Friday evening while the death toll hit 15,376.
This was the seventh day in a row that India registered over 14,000 cases as India continued to be the fourth worst hit among 213 countries. It is now less than 2 lakh cases away from Russia, which is in the third spot behind the US and Brazil, respectively.
Delhi, Chennai, Thane, Mumbai, Palghar, Pune, Hyderabad, Ranga Reddy, Ahmedabad and Faridabad are 10 cities and districts that contributed to 54.47 per cent of the total caseload reported till Thursday, a health ministry official said.
Between June 1 and June 26, the country witnessed 2,99,866 cases.
However, the number of recoveries have overtaken the active cases by 96,173, the health ministry said in the morning update. The number of active cases stands at 1,89,463.
In a day, 13,940 COVID-19 patients have been cured, taking the cumulative figure of recoveries to 2,85,636.
"This has led to the recovery rate touching 58.24 per cent," the ministry said. According to the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), 77,76,228 samples have been tested up till June 25 with 2,15,446 samples being tested on Thursday.
In the quest to expand COVID-19 testing labs network across the country, the ICMR has inducted 11 new labs in 24 hours. India now has 1,016 COVID-19 diagnostic labs with 737 in the government sector and 279 private ones.
Of the 407 new deaths reported till Friday morning, 192 were in Maharashtra, 64 in Delhi, 45 in Tamil Nadu, 18 in Gujarat, 15 each in West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh, 12 in Andhra Pradesh, 10 in Haryana, eight in Madhya Pradesh, seven in Punjab, six in Karnataka, five in Telangana, four in Rajasthan and two in Jammu and Kashmir.
Arunachal Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand and Uttarakhand have reported one COVID-19 fatality each in the last 24 hours.
Of the total 15,301 deaths reported so far, Maharashtra tops the tally with 6,931 deaths, followed by Delhi with 2,429 deaths, Gujarat with 1,753, Tamil Nadu with 911, Uttar Pradesh with 611, West Bengal with 606, Madhya Pradesh with 542, Rajasthan with 379 and Telangana with 230 deaths.
The COVID-19 death toll reached 198 in Haryana, 170 in Karnataka, 136 in Andhra Pradesh, 120 in Punjab, 90 in Jammu and Kashmir, 57 in Bihar, 36 in Uttarakhand, 22 in Kerala and 17 in Odisha.
Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand have registered 12 deaths each, Assam, Puducherry and Himachal Pradesh nine each, Chandigarh six, Goa two and Meghalaya, Tripura, Ladakh and Arunachal Pradesh have reported one fatality each, according to the health ministry.
More than 70 per cent deaths occurred due to comorbidities, it said.
Maharashtra has reported the highest number of cases at 1,47,741, followed by Delhi at 73,780, Tamil Nadu at 70,977, Gujarat at 29,520, Uttar Pradesh at 20,193, Rajasthan at 16,296 and West Bengal at 15,648, according to the ministry data.
The number of COVID-19 cases has gone up to 12,596 in Madhya Pradesh, 12,463 in Haryana, 11,364 in Telangana,10,884 in Andhra Pradesh and 10,560 in Karnataka.
It has risen to 8,473 in Bihar, 6,549 in Jammu and Kashmir, 6,321 in Assam and 5,962 in Odisha. Punjab has reported 4,769 novel coronavirus infections so far, while Kerala has 3,726 cases.
A total of 2,691 people have been infected by the virus in Uttarakhand, 2,452 in Chhattisgarh, 2,262 in Jharkhand, 1,290 in Tripura, 1,056 in Manipur, 995 in Goa, 941 in Ladakh and 839 in Himachal Pradesh.
Puducherry has recorded 502 COVID-19 cases, Chandigarh has 423, Nagaland has 355 and Arunachal Pradesh has 160. Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu together have reported 155 COVID-19 cases.
Mizoram has 145 cases, Sikkim has 85, Andaman and Nicobar Islands has registered 59 infections so far while Meghalaya has recorded 46 cases.
"Our figures are being reconciled with the Indian Council of Medical Research," the ministry said, adding that 8,123 cases are being reassigned to states.
State-wise distribution is subject to further verification and reconciliation, it added.
The overall number of global COVID-19 cases has topped 9.5 million, while the deaths have surged to more than 488,000, according to the Johns Hopkins University.
