Mumbai, with 51,100 coronavirus cases, crosses Wuhan

Mumbai, the country's financial, art and entertainment capital, crossed 51,000 coronavirus cases on Tuesday - around 700 more than China's Wuhan, where the global pandemic first surfaced in December. The total number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Wuhan is 50,333, including 3,869 fatalities. Maharashtra, the country's biggest coronavirus hotspot, meanwhile, stands at 90,000 cases, way ahead of the 84,000-plus cases in China.

The state's s total of 90,787 includes the 42,638 people who have already recovered from the highly infectious disease, reports NDTV.

According to figures supplied by the Maharashtra government, 2,259 people tested positive over the last 24 hours, a quarter of the record 9,987 cases reported across the country.

The number of deaths went up by 120 in the last 24 hours, taking the total to 3,289, which is also the highest among states.

Financial capital Mumbai now has 51,100 cases, 1,760 patients are dead. The silver lining, the experts said, was that the cases were plateauing in Dharavi, Asia's largest slum.

The spike in numbers comes days after Maharashtra took another cautious step towards easing the lockdown, allowing all government offices to function with 15 per cent employees last week. Private offices started functioning from yesterday with 10 per cent staff strength.

Self-employed people like plumbers, electricians, pest-control and technicians have also been allowed to start work, with all the mandatory social distancing and safety norms.

But in view of the ground reality, the state is yet to open religious places, shopping malls, hotels and restaurants, which have started functioning in other parts of the country.

Last week, Maharashtra surpassed China's tally of around 84,000 cases as the country crossed the 2.5 lakh mark. India now has more than 2.66 lakh cases -- recording 9,000-plus cases for the seventh consecutive day.

India is the fifth worst-hit nation by the COVID-19 pandemic after the US, Brazil, Russia and the UK. The country surpassed Spain a few days back.