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The death toll due to coronavirus rose to 206 and the number of cases in the country climbed to 6,761 on Friday, a record spike of 896 cases and 37 deaths in 24 hours since Thursday evening, according to the Union Health Ministry.
While the number of active COVID-19 cases stood at 6,039, as many as 515 people have been cured and discharged, and one had migrated, it said. The total number of cases include 71 foreign nationals.
37 deaths have been reported since Thursday evening, of which 25 were from Maharashtra, four from Delhi, three from Punjab, two from Andhra Pradesh, and one each from Gujarat, Karnataka and Jharkhand.
Of the total 206 deaths, Maharashtra tops the tally with 97 fatalities, followed by Gujarat at 17, Madhya Pradesh at 16 and Delhi at 13.
Punjab registered 11 deaths while Tamil Nadu has reported eight fatalities and Telengana seven.
Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka have reported six deaths each while five people have lost their lives in West Bengal. Jammu and Kashmir, and Uttar Pradesh have reported four fatalities each while Haryana and Rajasthan have recorded three deaths each.
Two deaths have been reported from Kerala. Bihar, Himachal Pradesh, Odisha and Jharkhand reported one fatality each, according to the health ministry data.
However, a PTI tally of figures reported by various states as on Friday showed at least 7,049 cases and 236 deaths.
There has been a lag in the Union Health Ministry figures, compared to the number of cases announced by different states, which officials attribute to procedural delays in assigning the cases to individual states.
According to the ministry's data updated in the evening, the highest number of confirmed cases in the country are from Maharashtra at 1,364, followed by Delhi at 898 and Tamil Nadu at 834.
COVID-19 cases have gone up to 473 in Telengana and 463 in Rajasthan. Uttar Pradesh has 431 cases so far followed by Andhra Pradesh at 363 and Kerala at 357.
The number of the novel coronavirus infection cases has risen to 259 in Madhya Pradesh, 241 in Gujarat, 197 in Karnataka, 184 in Jammu and Kashmir and 169 in Haryana. Punjab has 132 COVID-19 patients so far while West Bengal has 116 cases.
Bihar has reported 60 cases while Odisha has 44 coronavirus cases.
35 people were infected with the virus in Uttarakhand while Assam has 29 patients followed by Himachal Pradesh with 28 cases. Chandigarh has 18 cases while Ladakh has 15.
Jharkhand has 13 coronavirus positive patients so far.
Eleven cases have been reported from the Andaman and Nicobar Islands while 10 were reported from Chhattisgarh.
Goa has reported seven COVID-19 infections, followed by Puducherry at five, Manipur at two while Tripura, Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh have reported one case each.
The Health Ministry in the meantime maintained that no community transmission is taking place as yet in India, while the World Health Organisation also put the country in a category named 'cluster of cases' -- a notch below the community transmission stage and a classification used by the global body for cases 'clustered in time, geographic location and/or by common exposures'.
Later in the evening, WHO said that a hasty lifting of restrictions imposed to control the COVID-19 pandemic could lead to a fatal resurgence of the deadly virus, which has infected over 16 lakh people globally since its emergence in China last December while the worldwide death toll is fast approaching 1,00,000.
While several states including Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Jammu & Kashmir and Uttar Pradesh reported rising number of cases, the Union Health Ministry said the rate of people testing positive was only 0.2 per cent on Thursday when more than 16,000 samples were tested.
Cumulatively close to 1.5 lakh samples have been tested so far across India.
A PTI tally of numbers reported by various states as on 9.30 pm showed a total of 7,510 having been affected by the virus nationwide so far with at least 251 deaths. More than 700 have been cured and discharged.
A review meeting was also held by the Prime Minister's Office during the day on various efforts to check the coronavirus spread, which also discussed ramping up of production of personal protective equipment (PPEs) among other issues.
The home ministry, separately, has sought views of state governments on the 21-day lockdown, scheduled to end on April 14, including whether more categories of people and services need to be exempted, officials said on Friday.
Some of the suggestions made by state governments include allowing construction-related activities in rural areas.
The central government, while imposing the lockdown, had announced that shops dealing in essential commodities, including the online platforms, will remain open, besides services like health, sanitation, police, media, agriculture and banking. Movements of essential and non-essential cargos were also allowed by the government, but there have been reports about disruptions in the supply chain due to lack of labourers and trucks, among other issues.
There have also been reports of depleting levels of essential goods from various parts of the country.
Some states such as Kerala have suggested phased opening of the lockdown, while other suggestions from various states include allowing liquor sale to shore up the revenues and to allow private vehicles on an odd-even basis. However, most states have suggested keeping the public road transport, rail and airline services suspended for more time. Many have also recommended keeping state borders sealed, except for goods movement.
A few states have also suggested area-specific lockdown with stricter restrictions, which are as such being followed in the places identified as hotspots of the virus spread.
In the meantime, more states including Odisha and Telangana made it mandatory for people to wear masks or face covers at public places, while enforcement was beefed up for action against those violating the lockdown conditions.
The Centre also asked states not to allow religious gatherings and processions.
Government officials also said that a decision on bringing Indians from abroad will be taken at a later stage after reviewing the COVID-19 situation.