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India on Sunday overtook Russia as third worst-hit nation, with the number of cases standing at 6,97,836, according to covid19india.org. Russia has reported 6,80,283 cases, as per the Johns Hopkins University (JHU) tracker. India is now preceded only by Brazil and the US, who have recorded 2,841,124 and 1,577,004 cases respectively.

The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, however, said 21 states and UTs, including Delhi, Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh, have a Covid-19 recovery rate higher than the national average of 60.77 per cent. The number of fatalities rose to 19,268. Collective and focused efforts for containment and management of coronavirus by the government of India and its states and union territories have led to the number of recovered Covid patients to rise to 4,09,082 so far, it said. India reported 24,850 new cases of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) in the last 24 hours.

Maharashtra, the worst-hit state and home to the densely packed financial hub Mumbai, recorded over 7,000 new cases while Tamil Nadu and Delhi recorded more than 4,200 and 2,500 fresh cases respectively.

India had imposed one of the world's strictest lockdowns in March to control the virus spread, but it has been eased in phases in recent weeks to restart economic activity.

Schools, metro trains in cities, cinemas, gyms and swimming pools remain closed and international flights are still grounded.