India sees spike of over 19,000 cases, COVID-19 tally crosses 5.48 lakh

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 19,000 new cases reported in the last 24 hours, India's COVID-19 count on Monday crossed the 5.48 lakh-mark, while the death toll has crossed the 16,400-mark as well.

At 9:30 AM on this day, the COVID-19 tally in the country has reached 5,48,318 cases, which includes 2,10,120 active cases; 3,21,723 cured, discharged, or migrated patients, and 16,475 deaths.

According to the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, as many as 19,459 new COVID-19 cases and 380 deaths were reported in the country in the last 24 hours, marking a significant spike. In fact, this is the highest single-day spike in the country's COVID-19 as of yet.

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 1,64,626 positive cases of COVID-19 infection and 7,429 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 75,500-mark and the death toll has topped the 4,300-mark as well. At 9:30 AM on this day, the COVID-19 tally in Mumbai showed 75,539 cases and 4,371 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 Delhi with 83,077 cases. The national capital crossed Tamil Nadu to take up second place in the list due to a recent massive surge in the number of cases.

Tamil Nadu is third on the list with 82,275 cases.

After Tamil Nadu comes Gujarat, where the COVID-19 figure stands at 31,397 cases with 22,808 patients recovered and 1,809 fatalities. Uttar Pradesh has reported 22,147 cases of which 14,808 have recovered and 660 patients are dead.

Rajasthan has reported 17,271 positive cases so far of which 13,611 patients have recovered and 399 patients have lost their lives due to the virus. In West Bengal, as many as 17,283 people have confirmed COVID-19, of which 11,193 recovered and 639 people succumbed to it.

In Kerala, which reported the country's first COVID-19 case, 4,190 people have been detected positive for coronavirus so far.

Meanwhile tightening their containment strategy, states like Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh announced a door-to-door survey joining other states and union territories, including Delhi, Goa, and Odisha, while a 14-day lockdown began from Sunday evening in Guwahati in Assam.

The total number of samples tested up to 28 June is 83,98,362 of which 1,70,560 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.