India registered its highest single-day spike of COVID-19 cases for the fifth consecutive day on Sunday, with 9,971 new infections taking the country's tally to 2,46,628, while the death toll rose to 6,929, according to the Union Health Ministry.
India registered 287 deaths in the 24 hours since Saturday morning.
India had raced past Spain on Saturday to become the fifth worst-hit nation by the COVID-19 pandemic. Now, only the US, Brazil, Russia and the UK are ahead of it.
The number of active COVID-19 cases stands at 1,20,406, according to the health ministry.
Meanwhile, some states announced guidelines on resuming some economic activities as part of the Unlock 1.0 phase.
States announce lockdown relaxations
Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal has announced that malls, restaurants and religious places in Delhi would open from Monday after more than two months since the coronavirus lockdown was imposed, but banquets and hotels would remain closed.
At an online briefing on Sunday, Kejriwal said hotels and banquets might be converted into hospitals in the coming days to treat the novel coronavirus patients and, therefore, they would remain shut.
"Malls, restaurants and religious places will be opening from tomorrow in Delhi in accordance with Centre's guidelines," he said.
The Uttarakhand government, too, issued orders allowing malls, restaurants, hotels and religious places outside containment zones and municipal area of Dehradun in the state to open from 7 am to 7 pm. According to the guidelines, pilgrims from other states will not be permitted till further orders.
In Jammu and Kashmir, religious places/places of worship will remain closed for public till further orders. No inter-province or inter-State/UT movement of individuals is allowed without obtaining permission.
Nagaland, which has witnessed a recent spurt in COVID-19 cases, has also decided to keep places of worship and hotels closed till further orders, a senior official said. Lockdown measures issued by the chief secretary of Nagaland on 4 May will remain in place till further orders, Principal Secretary (Home) Abhijit Sinha told reporters.
"All places of worship shall be closed for public. Religious congregations are strictly prohibited," the notification issued by the chief secretary on 4 May said. The notification was issued to extend lockdown in the state. As per the notification, all hospitality services, barring those dealing with police personnel, government officials, healthcare workers and stranded persons, shall remain closed.
Maharashtra continues to report most cases, deaths
Of the 287 deaths reported since Saturday morning, 120 were from Maharashtra, 53 from Delhi, 29 from Gujarat, 19 from Tamil Nadu, 17 from West Bengal, 15 from Madhya Pradesh, 13 from Rajasthan, 10 from Telangana, three from Jammu and Kashmir, two each from Karnataka, Punjab and Chhattisgarh and one each from Kerala and Bihar.
Of the total 6,929 fatalities, Maharashtra tops the tally with 2,969 deaths, followed by Gujarat with 1,219 deaths, Delhi with 761, Madhya Pradesh with 399, West Bengal with 383, Uttar Pradesh with 257, Tamil Nadu with 251, Rajasthan with 231, Telangana with 123 and Andhra Pradesh with 73 deaths.
The death toll reached 59 in Karnataka and 50 in Punjab.
Jammu and Kashmir has reported 39 fatalities due to the disease, Bihar has 30, Haryana has 24 deaths, Kerala has 15, Uttarakhand has 11, Odisha has eight and Jharkhand has reported seven deaths so far.
Himachal Pradesh and Chandigarh have registered five COVID-19 fatalities each. Assam and Chhattisgarh have recorded four deaths each.
Meghalaya and Ladakh have reported one COVID-19 fatality each, according to the Health Ministry data.
According to the Ministry''s website, more than 70 per cent of the deaths are due to comorbidities.
The highest number of confirmed cases in the country are from Maharashtra at 82,968, followed by Tamil Nadu at 30,152, Delhi at 27,654, Gujarat at 19,592, Rajasthan at 10,331, Uttar Pradesh at 9,733 and Madhya Pradesh at 9,228, according to the Health Ministry data updated in the morning.
The number of COVID-19 cases has gone up to 7,738 in West Bengal, 5,213 in Karnataka, 4,915 in Bihar and 4,510 in Andhra Pradesh.
It has risen to 3,952 in Haryana, 3,496 in Telangana, 3,467 in Jammu and Kashmir and 2,781 in Odisha.
Punjab has reported 2,515 coronavirus infections so far, while Assam has 2,397 cases. A total of 1,807 people have been infected with the virus in Kerala and 1,303 in Uttarakhand.
Jharkhand has registered 1,000 cases, Chhattisgarh has 923, Tripura has 747, Himachal Pradesh has 400, Chandigarh has 309 cases, Goa has 267, Manipur has 157, Nagaland has 107, and Puducherry and Ladakh have 99 cases.
Arunachal Pradesh has 47 COVID-19 cases, while Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Meghalaya have registered 33 infections each.
Mizoram has reported 24 cases and Dadar and Nagar Haveli has 19 cases, while Sikkim has reported seven cases till now.
The Union health ministry cited a WHO situation report which said that deaths in India per lakh population (0.49) are much lower than the world average of 5.17 and are the lowest among countries that have eased lockdown such as Germany (10.35), Italy (55.78), the UK (59.62) and Spain (58.06).
Cases in India per lakh population (17.32) are much lower than the world average of 87.74 and are the lowest among countries that have eased lockdown such as Germany (219.93), Italy (387.33), the UK (419.54) and Spain (515.61).
The Indian Council of Medical Research has further ramped up the testing capacity for detecting the novel coronavirus in infected persons.
The number of government labs has been increased to 531 and private labs to 228, taking the total number of labs to 759.
As many as 1,42,069 samples were tested in the last 24 hours, taking the total number of samples tested till now to 46,66,386.
Govt says it is 'fine-tuning' strategy against COVID-19
Asserting that coronavirus is a "new agent" about which not everything is known, the governerment on Sunday defended the timing of imposition of the lockdown and rejected as "baseless" media reports expressing concerns that it did not take inputs from technical experts while drawing up its COVID-19 strategy.
The government also said it is "fine-tuning" its strategy based on emerging knowledge and experience on the ground.
In a statement, the Health Ministry said a section of the media is reporting on the decisions regarding India''s approach to the pandemic and asserted that the decision on the lockdown was taken in the background of rapid escalation of COVID-19 cases.
"The doubling rate of cases had dropped to a low level, pointing toward a dangerous trajectory of high case load and high mortality, as experienced by many western countries. The possibility that our health systems could soon be overwhelmed with COVID-19 patients seemed to be real," the ministry said.
There was all round consensus on the lockdown among all state governments, it said.
Meanwhile, civil aviation minister Hardeep Singh Puri said that India will take a decision on resumption of international passenger flights as soon as countries ease restrictions on entry of foreign nationals.
Countries like Japan and Singapore have put significant restrictions on entry of foreigners amid the coronavirus pandemic.
"A decision to resume regular international operations will be taken as soon as countries ease restrictions on entry of foreign nationals. Destination countries have to be ready to allow incoming flights," Puri said on Twitter.
India resumed its domestic passenger flights on May 25 after a gap of two months due to the coronavirus-triggered lockdown.
"Most countries have less than 10 per cent international operations because they are allowing entry only to their own citizens & have placed restrictions on foreign nationals," the minister stated.
Many countries are allowing inbound flights from a few nations, but have placed restrictions like quarantine or isolation, he said.
With inputs from PTI
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