India reports nearly 10,000 new virus cases in 24 hours

India reported a new rise of nearly 10,000 coronavirus infections on Wednesday, with a total caseload of 276,583, the fifth highest in the world.

The Health Ministry confirmed 9,985 new cases and 274 deaths in the last 24 hours. Total fatalities have reached 7,745.

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Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and New Delhi are the worst-hit states.

The spike comes as the government reopened restaurants, shopping malls and places of worship in most of India after a more than 2-month-old lockdown. Subways, hotels and schools remain closed.

The spike comes as the government reopened restaurants, shopping malls and places of worship in most of India. File photo

India has so far tested more than 4.9 million people with a daily capacity crossing 140,000.

The number of new cases has soared since the government began relaxing restrictions. There has also been a surge in infections in rural India following the return of hundreds of thousands of migrant workers who lost their jobs during the lockdown.

With much of the country re-opened under safety measures, China has announced three new confirmed cases of coronavirus, all brought from outside the country.

No new deaths were reported Wednesday and just 55 people remain in treatment for COVID-19, while another 157 were being monitored in isolation for showing signs of having the virus or having tested positive for it without showing symptoms.

China has reported a total of 4,634 deaths among 83,046 cases of COVID-19 since the virus was first detected in the central Chinese city of Wuhan late last year.

Associated Press