With 500 deaths, India crosses 6 lakh coronavirus cases

Confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus in India crossed 6 lakh on Wednesday after new cases of infection were reported on Delhi, Maharashtra and other states. As per the official bulletin released by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) released on July 1, India’s tally of confirmed cases stands at 5.85 lakh.

Maharashtra, the state with the most number of cases reported yet another massive spike with 5537 new cases. There are a total of 79,075 active cases in Maharashtra while 93,154 patients recovered and 8053 have succumbed to the infection. Mumbai accounts for 29,715 of the active cases reported from across Maharashtra.

India’s national capital, Delhi recorded 2442 new cases on Wednesday. With 61 more coronavirus-related deaths, Delhi’s toll now stands at 2803. Delhi now has 27,007 active cases while 59,992 COVID patients have recovered from the infection in the national capital so far.

The Government of India also removed impediments in Covid-19 testing on Wednesday and urged states to ramp up testing. “Pointing out that in some States/ UTs, the capacity utilization of the testing labs, particularly the ones in private sector, is grossly sub-optimal, States/UTs have been strongly advised to take all possible steps to ensure full capacity utilization of all COVID-19 testing laboratories in the State/UT,” a statement by the MoHFW said.

Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan also took to Twitter and said, “As a result of the coordinated steps taken by @MoHFW_INDIA along with States/UTs for containment & management of #COVID-19, the recovery rate further increased to 59.43%.”