Coronavirus Outbreak: With 47,704 new cases, India's COVID-19 tally crosses 14.83 lakh

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.

With over 47,700 new cases reported in the last 24 hours, India's COVID-19 count on this day crossed the 14.83 lakh-mark, while the death toll has crossed the 33,400-mark as well. 

At 9:30 AM on this day, the COVID-19 tally in the country has reached 14,83,157 cases, which include 4,96,988 active cases; 9,52,744 cured, discharged, or migrated patients, and 33,425 deaths.

According to the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, as many as 47,704 new COVID-19 cases and 654 deaths were reported in the country in the last 24 hours, marking a significant spike. A day 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 3,83,723 positive cases of COVID-19 infection and 13,883 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 1,10,182 cases and 6,132 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 2,20,716 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 1,31,219 cases.

After Delhi comes Andhra Pradesh, where the COVID-19 figure stands at 1,02,349 cases with 49,558 patients recovered, and 1,090 fatalities. Karnataka has reported 1,01,465 cases of which 37,685 have recovered and 1,953 patients are dead.

Uttar Pradesh has reported 70,493 positive cases so far of which 42,833 patients have recovered and 1,456 patients have lost their lives due to the virus. In West Bengal, as many as 60,830 people have confirmed COVID-19, of which 39,917 recovered and 1,411 people succumbed to it.

In Kerala, which reported the country's first COVID-19 case, 19,728 people have been detected positive for coronavirus so far.

Meanwhile, a total of 5,28,000 samples was tested for COVID-19 across the country on July 27, the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) said on Tuesday.

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.

Earlier on July 26, 5,15,000 samples were tested for the infection in the country.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi 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.