New Delhi, May 21 (IANS): For three consecutive days, on an average, 5,000 coronavirus cases were reported taking the country's total tally to 1,12,359 cases, data released by the Union Health Ministry on Thursday showed.

The fourth phase of the lockdown, with several relaxations for the people, has seen a sharpest spike in the number of coronavirus cases, where thrice, cases have breached the 5,000 mark. This is in sharp contrast to the increase in the number of new cases in the third phase of the lockdown - where cases were between 3,000-4,000. This establishes, as the restrictions were eased, the Covid-19 cases shot up.

Delhi has also added more than 500 cases daily on three consecutive days. Though, cases are growing at 5 per cent in Delhi, yet it has a high recovery rate. Out of total 11,088 cases in Delhi, 5,192 patients have already recovered and 176 deaths have been reported so far. In Mumbai, the average growth of cases is 6 per cent, and so far 24,118 cases have been reported. But the main worry for Mumbai is the number of recoveries is not keeping pace.

According to the Health Ministry, 45,299 people have been cured so far taking the recovery rate to 40.32 per cent, and 26,15,920 samples have been tested so far. As many as 103,532 samples have been tested in the last 24 hours through 555 testing labs (391 in the government sector and 164 private labs).

There are 63,624 active cases and 3,435 fatalities, and 45,300 patients have been cured of the disease. At least 3,002 patients recovered in the last 24 hours.

In Maharashtra, coronavirus cases climbed to 39,297, followed by Tamil Nadu with 13,191 cases and Gujarat with 12,537 cases so far. Maharashtra has the highest number of deaths at 1,390, followed by Gujarat's 749 and Madhya Pradesh's 267.

The Indian Council of Medical Research, in collaboration with various stakeholders including WHO, will conduct a community-based sero-survey to estimate the prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 infection in Indian population. A team of researchers from Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research (JNCASR), an autonomous Institute under the Department of Science &Technology (DST), along with collaborator from IISc Bengaluru have developed a heuristic predictive model for Covid-19 that provides short-term predictions about the evolution of the disease and the medical needs that are generated as a consequence.