Coronavirus Outbreak: India's COVID-19 case tally mounts to 15.31 lakh; 768 deaths recorded in last 24 hours

As the coronavirus cases in India continue to spread rapidly, India is now just behind the United States and Brazil in terms of the total confirmed cases as it already overtook Russia to take the third spot in the list of worst-hit nations in the world affected by the coronavirus disease (COVID-19). It is, therefore, also the biggest epicenter of the coronavirus disease pandemic in Asia.

India's COVID-19 count on this day crossed the 15.31 lakh-mark, while the death toll has crossed the 34,100-mark as well. 

At 9:30 AM on this day, the COVID-19 tally in the country has reached 15.31 lakh cases, which include 5,09,447 active cases; 9,88,030 cured, discharged, or migrated patients, and 34,193 deaths.

According to the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, as many as 768 deaths were reported in the country in the last 24 hours, marking a significant spike. Two days earlier, India had recorded the highest-single day spike in the number of COVID-19 cases with a record of  49,931 new cases in 24 hours.

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 3,91,440 positive cases of COVID-19 infection and 14,165 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 1.10 lakh-mark and the death toll has topped the 6,100-mark as well. At 9:30 AM on this day, the COVID-19 tally in Mumbai showed 1,10,882 cases and 6,187 deaths.

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 2,27,688 cases. The state crossed Delhi to take up second place in the list due to a recent massive surge in the number of cases.

The national capital is third on the list with 1,32,275 cases.

After Delhi comes Andhra Pradesh, where the COVID-19 figure stands at 1,10,297 cases with 52,622 patients recovered, and 1,148 fatalities. Karnataka has reported 1,07,001 cases of which 40,504 have recovered and 2,057 patients are dead.

Uttar Pradesh has reported 73,951 positive cases so far of which 44,520 patients have recovered and 1,497 patients have lost their lives due to the virus. In West Bengal, as many as 62,964 people have confirmed COVID-19, of which 42,022 recovered and 1,449 people succumbed to it.

In Kerala, which reported the country's first COVID-19 case, 20,895 people have been detected positive for coronavirus so far.

Meanwhile, a total of 4,08,855  samples was tested for COVID-19 across the country on July 28, the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) said on Wednesday.

This, according to the MoHFW, is a result of the coordinated efforts of the Union and various State and Union Territory governments push to increase the testing for the infection in the country.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had on Monday had said that efforts are being made to ramp up the testing capacity in the country to conduct up to 10 lakh COVID-19 tests per day.