India’s Covid-19 cases rise to 17,265, death toll at 543

India’s coronavirus disease (Covid-19) tally rose to 17,265 with 1553 new cases and 543 fatalities in the last 24 hours, the Union health ministry said on Monday morning.

The increase in the Covid-19 numbers comes on a day several states and Union territories will ease the rules of the lockdown put in place to break the chain of coronavirus infections.

According to the health ministry’s Covid-19 dashboard, there are 14,175 active cases and 2547 people have been cured, discharged or migrated.

Maharashtra neared the 5000-mark with 4203 Covid-19 cases and 223 deaths across the state. The ministry data showed 507 people have also been discharged from hospitals.

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The western state had recorded its highest one-day jump in Covid-19 cases on Sunday with 552 more infections. Authorities in India’s most-affected state have said the spike was because of a backlog in Mumbai’s civic body and private laboratories.

The spurt comes as a blow to the state’s health authorities after four consecutive days of relatively low numbers, which were 232, 286, 118 and 328 cases between April 15 and 18.

Maharashtra crossed the 1000-case mark in 30 days on April 7 and the 2000-mark in just six days on April 13. The state went from 2000 cases to 3000 in three days and from 3000 to 4000 also in three days.

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After Maharashtra, Delhi is the second most affected in the country with more than 2000 Covid-19 cases—2003 active, 72 discharged and 45 deaths. The national capital had crossed the 2000-mark on Sunday.

Chief minister Arvind Kejriwal said the “coronavirus is spreading fast” and declared all 11 revenue districts of Delhi as hot spots and directed the administration to conduct a fresh assessment of the situation in the Capital by April 27.

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“We have witnessed an increase in the number of cases. Yesterday, out of the 736 test results processed, 186 tested positive and all were asymptomatic... This is a scary situation,” Kejriwal said during a press briefing.

Gujarat has become the third most affected in the country and now has 1911 Covid-19 cases, out of which 105 people have been discharged and 63 have died.

The number of confirmed cases stood at 2,403,963 and there were 1165,227 fatalities across the world, according to the Covid-19 dashboard by Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) at around 8am India time.