Death toll due to COVID-19 rises to 681; cases climb to 21,393

The death toll due to COVID-19 rose to 681 and the number of cases to 21,393 in the country on Thursday, according to the Union Health Ministry.

The number of active COVID-19 cases stood at16,454, while 4,257 people have been cured and discharged, one patient has migrated, it said.

The total number of cases includes 77 foreign nationals.

A total of 29 deaths were reported since Wednesday evening, of which 18 fatalities were reported from Maharashtra, eight from Gujarat, two from Rajasthan and one from Delhi, the ministry said.

Of the 681 deaths, Maharashtra tops the tally with 269 fatalities, followed by Gujarat at 103, Madhya Pradesh at 80, Delhi at 48, Rajasthan at 27,Andhra Pradesh at 24 and Telengana at 23.

The death toll reached 21 in Uttar Pradesh, 18 in Tamil Nadu and 17 in Karantaka.

Punjab has registered 16 deaths, while West Bengal has reported 15 fatalities due to COVID-19 so far.

The disease has claimed five lives in Jammu and Kashmir. Kerala, Jharkhand and Haryana have recorded three deaths each.

Bihar has reported two deaths, while Meghalaya, Himachal Pradesh, Odisha and Assam have reported one fatality each, according to the ministry data.

However, a PTI tally of the figures reported by various states as on Wednesday evening showed 683 deaths in the country.

There has been a lag in the Union Health Ministry figures, compared to the number of deaths announced by different states, which officials attribute to procedural delays in assigning the cases to individual states.

According to the health ministry's data updated in the morning, the highest number of confirmed cases in the country are from Maharashtra at 5,652, followed by Gujarat at 2,407, Delhi at 2,248, Rajasthan at 1,890,Tamil Nadu at 1,629 and Madhya Pradesh at 1,592.

The number of COVID-19 cases has gone up to 1,449 in Uttar Pradesh, 945 in Telangana and 813 in Andhra Pradesh.

The number of cases has risen to 456 in West Bengal, 438 in Kerala, 427 in Karnataka,407 in Jammu and Kashmir, 262 in Haryana and 251 in Punjab.

Bihar has reported 143 coronavirus cases, while Odisha has 83 such cases.

Forty-nine people have been infected with the virus in Jharkhand, while Uttarakhand has 46 cases.

Himachal Pradesh has 40 cases and Chhattisgarh 36. Assam has registered 35 infections so far. Chandigarh has 27 COVID-19 cases, while 18 cases have been reported from Ladakh and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands each.

Meghalaya has reported 12 cases, while Goa and Puducherry have seven COVID-19 patients each.

Manipur and Tripura have two cases each, while Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh have reported a case each.

"Our figures are being reconciled with the ICMR," the ministry said on its website.

It also said the state-wise distribution is subject to further verification and reconciliation.