In the albeit of imposing restrictions and containment measures to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 pandemic in the country, India has attained a never-wished feat at the global stage on Sunday as the sequel of the peaking COVID-19 cases as the country has surpassed Russia and became the third worst-affected COVID-19 country in the world. 

According to the Union Health Ministry, India has reported 6,97,413 COVID-19 cases so far as of Monday morning- July 6. The country has added 24,248 fresh cases to its tally in the last 24 hours and the sharpest spike has taken the total tally to a new high which transcended the tally of Russia, which has reported 6,80,283 cases so far.

With hitting the third spot, India is behind the United States and Brazil which had reported 29,48,587 and 15,78,376 cases respectively at the global stage. The grounds of spread in India, particularly in the southern states like Karnataka, Telangana, and Tamil Nadu have accounted for the sharpest rise in the country's tally. 

According to the reports, by reporting 24,248 cases in the last 24 hours till Monday morning 8 am, India has recorded more than 20,000 cases for the fourth consecutive day and it also reported 425 fresh deaths which had taken the death toll to 19,693. At the national stage, Maharashtra stands as the most affected state in the country. 

India's richest state has reported 6,555 new cases on Sunday taking its total tally to 2,06,619 so far. Following Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu is the second most affected state with 1,11,151 cases. On Monday, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal announced that his state has crossed the tally of 1 lakh cases making it the third most affected state in India. 

The Union Health Ministry said that India has reported 6,97,413 cases so far as of Monday morning of which 2,53,287 are active cases, 4,24,433 have been recovered while 19,693 had succumbed to the infection so far. The Ministry said that 60.85 percent of the patients have recovered so far from the pandemic and the total confirmed cases are inclusive of foreign nationals.

According to the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), India has tested 99,69,662 samples so far including 1,80,596 samples that were tested on Sunday. On June 12, India's tally stood at 2,97,535 cases which surpassed the tally of the United Kingdom and become the fourth worst-hit nation by COVID-19 and within a month, the country has added 3,99,878 more cases to its count and surpassed the tally of Russia and became the third worst-hit COVID-19 nation in the world.