Coronavirus Outbreak: With a spike of 18,653 cases, India's COVID-19 tally reaches 5,85,493

As the coronavirus cases in India continue to spread rapidly, India is now just behind the United States, Brazil, and Russia in terms of the total confirmed cases. It is, therefore, the biggest epicenter of the coronavirus disease pandemic in Asia and the fourth worst-affected nation in the world.

With over 18,000 new cases reported in the last 24 hours, India's COVID-19 count on Wednesday crossed the 5.85 lakh-mark, while the death toll has crossed the 16,800-mark as well.

At 9:30 AM on this day, the COVID-19 tally in the country has reached 5,85,493 cases, which includes 2,20,114 active cases; 3,47,979 cured, discharged, or migrated patients, and 17,400 deaths.

According to the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, as many as 18,653 new COVID-19 cases and 507 deaths were reported in the country in the last 24 hours, marking a significant spike.

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 1,74,761 positive cases of COVID-19 infection and 7,855 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 77,600-mark and the death toll has topped the 4,500-mark as well. At 9:30 AM on this day, the COVID-19 tally in Mumbai showed 77,658 cases and 4,556 deaths. A total of 903 new COVID-19 cases and 36 deaths reported in Mumbai on Tuesday, according to Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC).

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 90,167 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 87,360 cases.

After Delhi comes Gujarat, where the COVID-19 figure stands at 32,643 cases with 23,670 patients recovered and 1,848 fatalities. Uttar Pradesh has reported 23,492 cases of which 16,084 have recovered and 697 patients are dead.

West Bengal has reported 18,559 positive cases so far of which 12,130 patients have recovered and 668 patients have lost their lives due to the virus. In Rajasthan, as many as 18,008 people have confirmed COVID-19, of which 14,220 recovered and 413 people succumbed to it.

In Kerala, which reported the country's first COVID-19 case, 4,443 people have been detected positive for coronavirus so far.

Meanwhile, India's first COVID-19 vaccine COVAXIN developed by Bharat Biotech got the nod for human trials by the Drug Controller General of India on Monday (June 29).

The total number of samples tested up to June 30 is 86,26,585 of which 2,17,931 samples were tested yesterday, said the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).

The central government still keeps denying that community transmission is taking place in India.