Record Jump of 9,887 Cases, 294 Deaths in 24 Hours as India Overtakes Italy for 6th Spot in Worst-Hit List

India went past Italy to become the sixth worst-hit nation by the COVID-19 pandemic with the country registering a record single-day spike of 9,887 cases which pushed the nationwide tally to 2,36,657. India's death toll due to COVID-19 rose to 6,642 with a record increase of 294 deaths in the 24 hours till Saturday 8 am.

India has registered over 9,000 cases for the third day in a row. India is now the sixth worst-affected nation in terms of coronavirus infection cases after the US, Brazil, Russia, Spain and the UK, according to Johns Hopkins University data.

The number of active COVID-19 cases stood at 1,15,942, while 1,14,072 people have recovered, the Union Health Ministry said. "Thus, around 48.20 per cent patients have recovered so far," a senior health ministry official said. The total confirmed cases include foreigners.

According to the health ministry data updated in the morning, the highest number of confirmed cases in the country are from Maharashtra at 80,229, followed by Tamil Nadu at 28,694, Delhi at 26,334, Gujarat at 19,094, Rajasthan at 10,084, Uttar Pradesh at 9,733 and Madhya Pradesh at 8,996.

The number of states with four-digit or bigger tallies has doubled since May 1 when the centre allowed the movement of migrant workers in special trains from big urban clusters to their villages. Some of these states have seen their tallies rising more than 10-fold.

The concerning figures come even as the Centre and state governments are currently in the process of paring down restrictions in place since March 25 as part of a nationwide lockdown.

Of the 294 deaths reported since Friday morning, 139 were in Maharashtra, 58 in Delhi, 35 in Gujarat, 12 each in Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh, 11 in West Bengal, eight in Telangana, seven in Madhya Pradesh, five in Rajasthan, two in Andhra Pradesh and one each in Jammu and Kashmir, Odisha, Punjab Jharkhand and Uttarakhand.

Of the total 6,642 fatalities, Maharashtra tops tally with 2,849 deaths followed by Gujarat with 1,190 deaths, Delhi with 708, Madhya Pradesh with 384, West Bengal with 366, Uttar Pradesh with 257, Tamil Nadu with 232, Rajasthan with 218, Telangana with 113 and Andhra Pradesh with 73 deaths.