New Delhi, May 3 (IANS): The total cases of novel coronavirus in India crossed 40 thousand mark and mounted to 40,263 on Sunday. In an evening update, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said that of the total tally 28,070 are active cases, while 1,306 fatalities have been reported.

Earlier in a press statement, the Health Ministry said: "Since yesterday, an increase of 2,644 has been noted in the number ofCOVID-19 confirmed cases in India." This is the highest spike in the total number so far. A total of 10,886 people have recovered from the disease so far, the ministry said.

It also said that at least 139 cases are being assigned to states for contact tracing. The Health Ministry said that the recovery rate in India was recorded at 26.59%.

The Number of cases continued to mount in the state of Maharashtra with a total 12296 cases. It was followed by Gujarat with a total 5055 cases and Delhi with 4122 cases according to the Health Ministry. Other major states which have reported more than 2000 cases are Madhya Pradesh (2,846), Rajasthan (2,772), Tamil Nadu (2,757) and Uttar Pradesh (2,626). States and UTs where there are significant number of cases are Andhra Pradesh (1583),Telangana (1063), Jammu and Kashmir (666) Karnataka (606), Kerala (500), Punjab (772), Bihar (482), Haryana (394), Odisha (160) and Jharkhand (115).States which reported less than 10 cases are Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Mizoram, Puducherry and Tripura.