India nears 2 lakh cases, placed 7th in world after Italy

New Delhi: COVID-19 in India saw a fresh surge of 8,171 new cases in the past 24 hours pushing the overall tally in the country to 1,98,706.

The death toll due to the virus in India has now touched 5,598. India has 97,581 active cases and 95,526 cured or discharged cases, said the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

The country has witnessed 204 deaths in the past 24 hours even as it rose up to the seventh spot on the world rankings of number of coronavirus cases.

While the United States is leading the charts on the Johns Hopkins University tracker of coronavirus cases in the world, India is now on the seventh spot after beating France. India has US, Brazil, Russia, United Kingdom, Spain and Italy ahead with more coronavirus cases and deaths.

Across the world, coronavirus cases have gone past 62,66,000 while the death toll is over 3,75,000.

In India, Maharashtra continues to remain the most-affected state with over 70,000 Covid cases being reported so far. A total of 2,362 people have died in Maharashtra so far.

Tamil Nadu is the second most-affected state after Maharashtra with 23,495 coronavirus cases and 184 deaths. Delhi ranks third with 20,834 coronavirus cases followed by Gujarat.

Over the past few days, India has consistently recorded over 8,000 Covid cases every day, taking the total tally to nearly 2 lakh.

Meanwhile, India is in the fifth phase of the nationwide lockdown or the first phase of easing the lockdown which is being called Unlock 1.0. Several stringent restrictions have been eased up across the country, including resumption of flight movement and inter-state travel.

Maharashtra, which has over 70,000 coronavirus cases, has come up with a new plan of ‘Begin Again’ to ease the lockdown and revive the economy which has been battered by the over 2-month-long lockdown.