India's Covid-19 tally nears 27 million with 196,427 fresh cases, 3,511 deaths

India recorded 196,427 new cases of coronavirus disease (Covid-19) in the last 24 hours, taking the total tally of cases to 26,948,874, according to Union health ministry update on Tuesday morning. It also showed that 3,511 deaths were also recorded in the same period, taking the nationwide toll to 3,07,231.

The number of active cases in the country further went down by 133,934, and reaching 25,867,782 the ministry's update at 8am showed.

The number of deaths have hovered near the 4,000-mark for past several days, leading to concerns among experts and government officials.

The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) said a total of 33,25,94,176 samples were tested up to May 24 including 20,58,112 samples tested yesterday.

However, the number of daily cases in high caseload states like Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh Delhi are on a decline, which shows that the severity of the second wave of Covid-19 is on a decline in India.

Several states have extended ongoing curbs in a bid to keep the Covid-19 infection from spreading. Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Karnataka, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh, Nagaland, Mizoram, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir and Goa have re-imposed curfew-like restrictions after active coronavirus cases showed a decline.

Metropolitan cities like Mumbai and Delhi have seen signs of improvement in recent days, but there is a growing concern about smaller towns and rural areas where the coronavirus has made inroads.

Union health minister Harsh Vardhan on Monday said that the daily recoveries from the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) exceeded the new cases in the country for the eleventh straight day.

Ten states including Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal accounted for 81.08% of the coronavirus infections seen on Monday, the Union health ministry said, adding that Tamil Nadu saw the maximum (35,483 new cases) followed by Maharashtra at 26,672.