New Delhi, Jun 25 (IANS): The Union Health Ministry on Thursday said it will send a Central team, led by its Joint Secretary Lav Agarwal, to Gujarat, Maharashtra and Telangana for strengthening Covid-19 management efforts in these states.

The team will be in the three states between June 26 and 29 to coordinate with the state officials and review the measures undertaken by the states for containment of novel coronavirus, which has so far infected a total of 4,73,105 people across the country.

Maharashtra has reported the highest number of cases at 1,42,900, Gujarat 28,943 while Telangana has so far reported 10,331 cases, according to Health Ministry data.

The decision was taken when India on Thursday witnessed highest spike of almost 17,000 fresh Covid cases in the past 24 hours, with Maharashtra, Delhi and Tamil Nadu contributing more than 62 per cent, while the overall fatalities rose to 14,894, the Ministry data said.

According to the Health Ministry data, 418 new deaths were reported in the last 24 hours.

The ministry also said there are 33.39 cases in India for every one lakh population, against the global average of 120.21 cases per lakh.

Also, the number of deaths in the country is currently amongst the lowest in the world with 1.06 deaths per lakh against the world average of 6.24 deaths per lakh.

Following efforts to ramp up facilities across the nation, there are in total 1,007 diagnostic labs, of which 734 are in the government sector and 273 private.

From limited Covid-19 tests in January, a cumulative total of 75,60,782 samples have been tested up to June 24 with 2,07,871 samples being tested on Wednesday.

The Ministry, meanwhile, said the recovery rate is 57.43 per cent amongst Covid-19 patients and a total of 13,012 patients have been cured during the last 24 hours, Thus, so far, a total of 2,71,696 patients have been cured.

Presently, there are 1,86,514 active cases.