The coronavirus cases in India continue to spread rapidly as the country has marked significant and consecutive highest jumps in the COVID-19 tally over a major part of the last two weeks.

The total number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 infection in India crossed the 1.98 lakh-mark by Tuesday, while the death toll has reached the 5,600-mark as well. It is to be noted that India has now become the world's seventh worst-hit country in terms of coronavirus cases, according to the World Health Organisation's (WHO) COVID-19 tracker.

Maharashtra continues to be the epicenter of the coronavirus spread where the number of cases has witnessed an even large spike recently. According to the Health Ministry, Maharashtra has the highest number of cases with well over 70,000 positive cases of infection and more than 2,360 deaths. As many as 2,358 COVID-19 cases were reported from the state in the past 24 hours.

Notably, Mumbai, the financial capital of the country, has become the hotbed of the coronavirus spread in the state where the number of cases has crossed the 41,000-mark while the death toll has topped the 1,300-mark as well. The city reported as many as 1,413 cases on Monday alone.

The fifth phase of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19)-necessitated nationwide lockdown is currently in place. By now, several restrictions that were earlier enforced have currently been eased and citizens were seen returning to their normal lifestyles in many parts of the country.

The current phase of re-opening, called 'Unlock 1', takes an economic focus. The government intends on being smart about implementing the lockdown in select places so that the economic activity of the country, as a whole, does not take any more hits. The rising number of coronavirus disease cases for the past few weeks in the country has led the Centre to take this call in order to prevent COVID-19 from spreading further.

According to the new guidelines, all activities outside of containment zones have been allowed to resume in a phased manner from June 1. The guidelines will come into effect from June 1 and will be effective till June 30.

16:03 IST Tuesday, 02 June 2020

25 new #COVID19 positive cases reported in Mumbai's Dharavi area today; the total number of positive cases in the area rises to 1830, death toll stands at 71: Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation 

13:31 IST Tuesday, 02 June 2020

Jharkhand: Number of coronavirus cases in India stands at 675 which includes 374 active cases, 296 recovered cases, and 5 deaths. 

11:38 IST Tuesday, 02 June 2020

171 new #COVID19 positive cases and 2 deaths have been reported in the state till 10:30 am today. Total positive cases stand at 9271 and the death toll is at 201: Rajasthan Health Department

11:05 IST Tuesday, 02 June 2020

13 persons have tested positive for #COVID19 at Delhi Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal's Office: Lieutenant Governor Office

10:25 IST Tuesday, 02 June 2020

Tamil Nadu: INS Jalashwa carrying 685 Indian nationals from Colombo in Sri Lanka arrives at V O Chidambaranar Port in Tuticorin. A passenger says, "it feels great to be back home. We had a pleasant trip. We are grateful to the Indian govt for bringing us back."

09:09 IST Tuesday, 02 June 2020

India reports 8,171 new #COVID19 cases & 204 deaths in the last 24 hours. Total number of cases in the country now at 1,98,706 including 97,581 active cases, 95,526 cured/discharged/migrated and 5,598 deaths: Ministry of Health and Family Welfare

08:20 IST Tuesday, 02 June 2020

Mizoram: 12 new COVID19 positive cases confirmed at Zoram Medical College

08:19 IST Tuesday, 02 June 2020

Delhi-Gurugram border: Police personnel check vehicles at the border as Delhi border remains sealed for one week.

06:44 IST Tuesday, 02 June 2020

Jharkhand: Decision on opening religious places for the public in the state would only be taken after order on final lockdown, says Chief Minister Hemant Soren. (PTI report)

06:38 IST Tuesday, 02 June 2020

Bihar: COVID-19 tally reaches 3,945 in the state with 138 fresh cases, two new fatalities take death toll to 23.

06:34 IST Tuesday, 02 June 2020

Jharkhand: 51 fresh COVID19 cases in the state, total tally mounts to 661, the number of active cases stands at 400.