Coronavirus Cases In India Cross 20,000, 49 Deaths In 24 Hours

With the second biggest spike since the beginning of the pandemic, India registered 1,486 new coronavirus cases on Wednesday, taking the total to 20,471. With 49 more people dying in the last 24 hours, the number of deaths rose to 652, the Health Ministry said.

Coronavirus cases had jumped by 1,540 on Monday when the government also reported an improvement in the number of people who have recovered. The recovery rate stood at 19.36 per cent this morning, with 618 patients recovering in a day.

While the total number of confirmed infections continues to climb, government health officials have said the speed of transmission is slowing thanks to the nationwide lockdown that began on March 25 and in place until at least May 3.

The "doubling rate" - the number of days it takes infections to multiply by two - had increased to 7.5 days, up from 3.4 days before the lockdown, Health Ministry joint secretary Lav Agarwal said on Monday. "This is an extremely positive trend," he said.

The disease has now spread to 430 districts, up from 211 on April 2, while six major cities account for about 45 per cent of the total cases across the country.

Mumbai tops the chart with over 3,000 cases, followed by Delhi at 2,081, Ahmedabad at 1,298, Indore at 915, Pune at 660 and Jaipur 537.

More than 60 percent of the cases are from just the top five states - Maharashtra, Gujarat, Delhi, Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu.

Such an uneven spread allows health officials to focus their efforts on the top affected areas, or red zones, such as Delhi and Mumbai, while allowing other states to re-start activities, the government has said.

On Monday, the government allowed some factories and businesses to open in rural India as part of a staggered exit from the lockdown that has left crores out of work and short of food even though absent staff and broken supply chains scuppered the efforts.

In one of the world's toughest lockdowns, people across the country have been forbidden from stepping out of their homes except for food and medicines until May 3. Telangana has already announced an extension of the lockdown till May 7.