India on Saturday recorded the biggest single-day jump with 2,293 Coronavirus cases in 24 hours taking the total to 37,336 including 1218 deaths, according to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

A total of 71 fatalities were reported in the last 24 hours.

Advertisement

Of the total positive cases, 26,167 are active while 9,950 have cured or discharged.

The spike in the Coronavirus cases comes as the health ministry has stated that India’s recovery rate is improving and currently stands at 25.37 per cent.

Maharashtra remains the worst-hit state with the total number of cases rising to 11,506 with 485 deaths, although 1,879 people have also recovered from the deadly virus.

Gujarat next in the order has reported 4,721 cases so far followed by Delhi with 3,738 cases, according to the Health Ministry data.

The other states which have seen sharp rise in cases are Madhya Pradesh (2,719), Rajasthan (2,666), Tamil Nadu (2,526) and Uttar Pradesh (2,228).

Maharashtra has the highest number of fatalities among all the states, followed by Gujarat with 236 deaths, Madhya Pradesh 145 and Delhi 61.

Among other major states, Andhra Pradesh has reported 1,463 cases and 33 deaths so far, Bihar 471 cases and three deaths, Haryana 360 and four deaths, Jammu and Kashmir 639 cases and eight deaths, Karnataka 589 and 22 deaths and Kerala 497 cases and four deaths.

States which have reported less than 10 cases are Tripura, Mizoram, Puducherry, Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh.

Meanwhile, the Government late on Friday announced the extension of the lockdown for two more weeks beginning on May 4 to break the chain of COVID-19 transmission.

The government also put out new guidelines for the extended lockdown period. The fresh guidelines have permitted considerable relaxations in lockdown 3 restrictions, within the districts falling in the green and orange zones.

The announcement came hours after a high-level meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi with Home Minister Amit Shah, Commerce and Railways Minister Piyush Goyal, Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri and Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba.

The meeting came in the backdrop of Government finalising the list of containment zones and dividing the states and districts into different categories according to the COVID-19 situation in these areas.

As per the list, 130 districts fall under the Red Zone, 284 in the Orange Zone and 319 in Green Zone.

After consulting the state governments and the chief secretaries of the states, the health ministry has decided to put all metro cities, including Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, in the Red Zone. The Red Zone cities also include Hyderabad, Bengaluru and Ahmedabad.

Also, the Centre has allowed the movement of students, migrant workers, pilgrims, tourists and others stranded at various places due to the ongoing nationwide lockdown that is in place to fight the Coronavirus pandemic.

The Government on Wednesday issued an order to all the States and Union Territories to facilitate Inter-State movement of stranded people including migrant labourers in the country.