NEW DELHI (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 06th July, 2020) India has surpassed Russia and became a country with the third-highest number of confirmed coronavirus cases, after the overall tally in the Asian country reached 697,413 on Monday.
India is now only behind the United States (nearly 3 million cases) and Brazil (more than 1.6 million).
According to the Indian Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, the country registered more than 24,200 coronavirus cases over the past 24 hours, a slight decrease from 24,800 a day ago. At the same time, the country reported 425 coronavirus-related fatalities over the given period, and the death toll reached 19,693 since the start of the outbreak.
More than 424,000 people have fully recovered from the disease, meaning that the number of active cases at the moment stood at 253,287.
India's central state of Maharashtra, with over 206,600 COVID-19 cases, remains the most affected region. It is followed by the southern state of Tamil Nadu, with more than 111,100 cases, and the National Capital Territory of Delhi, with over 99,400 cases.
Despite the growing number of cases, in late June, the government announced the second phase of lifting quarantine restrictions. According to the new rules, lockdowns are still in places in regions deemed "red zones" where the infection rates are still high at least until July 31. On June 8, India started lifting restrictions in some parts of the country with low infection rates allowing places of worship, shopping centers and restaurants to open in the first phase.
Russia's most recent update says there is a total of 681,251 coronavirus cases in the country.
