Corona update: India surpasses Spain, becomes 5th worst hit country; tally rises to 2.46 lakhs
India on Saturday surpassed Spain to become the fifth worst-hit country by the coronavirus pandemic, after a record spike of over 9500 cases for four consecutive days.
On Saturday morning, the health ministry data said India reported 9,971 new cases in the last 24 hours —- biggest one-day spike so far. With this, the total number of confirmed coronavirus cases has surged to 2,46,628.
In less than 24 hours, India surpassed Italy and then Spain to reach the grim milestone. Now, only the US, Brazil, Russia and the UK are ahead of it.
Top 5 worst affected countries are:
- United States of America – 1,920,061 Confirmed cases
- Brazil – 672,846 Confirmed cases
- Russia – 458,102 Confirmed cases
- United Kingdom – 286,294 Confirmed cases
- India – 2,46,628 Confirmed cases
There has been a minor fall in recovery rate compared to Friday, from 48.27 per cent to 48.20 per cent. The number of deaths reported in the last 24 hours is 287 —- the second highest death toll in a single day, taking the total number of fatalities in India to 6,929.
Though overall the count of recoveries has risen, India still has more than 1.2 lakh active cases across the country. The cases have been rising sharply, by 9,000 or more, for several days now.
Top States/UTs to record high new cases
| New cases | New deaths | |
| Maharashtra | 2739 | 120 |
| Tamil Nadu | 1458 | 19 |
| Delhi | 1320 | 53 |
| Gujarat | 498 | 29 |
| West Bengal | 435 | 17 |
With nearly 2700 new cases and 120 deaths reported in the last 24 hours, Maharashtra registered 42,609 active cases in the state. 37,390 people recovered from the disease so far. However, the state continues to struggle in controlling the virus as new cases from different parts of the state continue to emerge. The total number of confirmed cases in Maharashtra is 82,968 and death toll nears 3000 mark.
For more than 5 continuous days, Tamil Nadu has been reporting the second highest new cases. On Saturday, 1458 new infections were detected in the state. The total number of cases in Tamil Nadu rose to 30,152. The deaths reported have been comparatively lower than its counterparts with 251 fatalities recorded so far.
While Delhi and Gujarat already have their tallies running into five digits, at least three other states – Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh – have total confirmed cases of more than 9,000.
Delhi recorded 1,320 fresh coronavirus cases on Saturday, taking the Covid-19 tally in the city to over 27,500, and the death toll due to the disease mounted to 761..
Gujarat remains at the fourth position in overall cases and second highest in death toll. 23 new fatalities have been reported in the state. There are 219 patients who have recovered in the state today. The total number of cases in the state has reached to 19592 and death toll rose to 1219.
The condition in West Bengal continues to deteriorate and its place has been rising in the list. West Bengal replaced Karnataka and jumped to 8th position. The active cases in the state have rose to 4236. Meanwhile, the state became the one reporting fifth highest deaths after Maharashtra, Gujarat, Delhi & Madhya Pradesh.
Meanwhile,
Several states have started to issue guidelines with regard to the first phase of the ‘Unlock 1’ which, according to MHA guidelines, permits religious places and places of worship for public, hotels, restaurants, other hospitality services, and shopping malls to open from June 8.
The Haryana government has decided to allow reopening of places of worship and shopping malls for public in a regulated manner across the state from June 8, except in Gurgaon and Faridabad districts worst-hit by Covid-19.
Apart from this, hotels, restaurants and other hospitality services would be reopened with generic preventive measures across the state. The timing of opening for all would be between 9 am and 8 pm to ensure compliance of night curfew between 9 pm and 5 am.
The Uttar Pradesh government also announced that religious places will be opening in the state from June 8, however, devotees will not be able to make any offering of ‘prasad’ nor will be able to touch statues, idols or holy books in places of worship as and when they visit them after their opening.
Chhattisgarh also issued guidelines phase-wise lifting of the coronavirus-induced lockdown from June 8 on Saturday. The state government has allowed public parks, gardens, places of worship and hotels to open. Only outdoor activities in clubs and outdoor games in sports complexes and stadiums will be permitted.
In restaurants, only takeaway services will be provided. Opening of shopping malls will remain prohibited,” a public relations department official said.