Coronavirus in India: Highest spike for 2nd consecutive day

India today recorded the highest single-day spike in the number of fresh coronavirus deaths and positive cases.

In the last 24 hours, there were 7,964 new patients while 265 people died of the infection, reports our New Delhi correspondent, quoting data from the country's health ministry that was released this morning.

This is the second consecutive day that India has reported over 7,000 cases in a span of 24 hours.

The total number of deaths rose to 4,971 and the number of confirmed cases across the country to 1,73,763, according to the data.

More than 80,000 patients have recovered so far.

The latest figures come just a day before the scheduled end of the nationwide lockdown imposed on March 25 and extended three times since then to check the spread of the contagion.

There is speculation on whether more areas of day-to-day life and economic activities would be reopened if the ongoing lockdown is extended beyond May 31.

Restarting of domestic flights and passenger trains are among the relaxations already initiated by the federal government and governments in states.