India’s coronavirus cases rises to 10.38 lakh

India's coronavirus tally soared to 10.38 lakh cases today with 34,884 new patients recorded in the last 24 hours, health ministry data shows.

A total of 671 Covid-19 deaths were added in the last 24 hours, pushing the total death count to 26,273.

The number of active coronavirus cases across India crossed the 3.5 lakh mark and total recoveries from the disease crossed 6.5 lakh, which is 62.93 percent this morning.

However, the number of fresh cases outpaced the recovered cases in the last few days, according to a study.

The health ministry said yesterday that while the strategy to deal with the spread of infection remains focused on early detection with widespread and easily accessible testing, intensive contact tracing is aimed at restricting the spread.

Maharashtra, on Friday, logged 8,308 new Covid-19 cases, with 1,214 in India's financial and entertainment capital of Mumbai.

But it is a cause of concern that new urban Covid-19 hotspots are coming to the fore; 3,884 of the total cases in Maharashtra came from Thane division which forms part of greater Mumbai.

In fact, Mumbai's satellite cities -- Thane, Navi Mumbai and Kalyan-Dombivali -- appear to be emerging as the new coronavirus epicentres in the state with the entire Thane district (city and rural) reporting 631 cases while Kalyan-Dombivali Municipal Corporation reporting 461 new cases.

West Bengal reported a new high of 1,894 new coronavirus cases till Friday night with 563 from Kolkata alone.

In the last 24 hours, 26 people have died in the state while the positivity rate continued to go up with a declining recovery rate.

Keeping in view the rapid surge in fresh cases, West Bengal government has extended the ban on flights coming into Kolkata from six cities Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Ahmedabad, Pune and Nagpur till July 31. The flights were first banned from July 6 until July 19.

As the cases rise, two pharma majors Bharat Biotech and Zydus Cadila began human trials for their Covid-19 vaccine candidates this week.