Biggest one-day spike with 9,971, death toll nears 7,000, total cases 2,46,628

mangaloretoday.com/ yahoo

New Delhi, June 07, 2020: India today reported the highest single-day spike of 9,971 new Covid-19 cases and 287 deaths in the last 24 hours, taking the total number of cases in the country to 2,46,628. The figures include 1,20,406 active cases, 1,19,293 cured/discharged and migrated and 6,929 deaths.

India’s top four metropolitian clusters, Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai, account for nearly half of the nationwide Covid-19 tally, which saw a record surge of almost 10,000 yesterday. These four have a similar share in the death toll, which is fast approaching the 7,000-mark.

In its last update, the Union Health Ministry said the total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in India rose to 2,36,657 with a record single-day spike of 9,887 cases in 24 hours since Friday 8 AM, while the death toll also rose by a record 294 to 6,642.

However, a PTI tally of figures announced by different states and UTs, as of 9.15 PM, put the nationwide count of confirmed COVID-19 cases higher at 2,37,867 and the death toll at 6,858. A real-time worldwide COVID-19 tracker of Johns Hopkins University showed India’s tally having risen to 2,45,670 as of 11.15 PM, making it the fifth worst hit nation after the US, Brazil, Russia and the UK. It also showed a higher death toll for India at 6,913 -- the 12th highest globally. However, India has also seen close to 1.15 COVID-19 patients having recovered, which is also among the 10 highest in the world.

The numbers would get much higher if the areas from adjoining districts get added to the tallies of these top metro cities. In case of Delhi, some of the areas of the so-called national capital region fall in neighbouring states of Uttar Pradesh and Haryana.

While Mumbai is the worst-hit city in the country, Delhi and Chennai have also been hit hard. Other major urban clusters affected by the deadly virus outbreak include Ahmedabad in Gujarat, Pune in Maharashtra and Indore in Madhya Pradesh. Kolkata has relatively lower numbers, but cases have been rising there in the recent past.

Together, these seven major urban clusters have reported close to 1.4 lakh confirmed cases and at least 5,665 deaths -- accounting for 59 per cent of the nationwide tally of positive cases and the death toll, respectively.

Of the total, as many as 62,615 cases have been reported from Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) which includes 47,354 cases in Mumbai city alone. The region has reported 1,993 fatalities, including 1,577 from Mumbai city alone. In the state, Pune city has reported 8,049 cases and 372 fatalities so far, while the figures for the entire Pune district are even higher.

Among other states and UTs, Jammu and Kashmir, Puducherry, Assam, Uttarakhand, Nagaland, Kerala, Jharkhand, Andhra Pradesh, Manipur, Rajasthan, Odisha, Mizoram and Uttar Pradesh also reported new cases.