COVID-19 cases jump to 35,043, death toll at 1,147

New Delhi, May 01: India recorded 1,993 new Covid-19 cases and 73 deaths from the disease in the last 24 hours, according to the figures released by the Union health ministry at 8 am on Friday.

The COVID-19 tally in India surged to 35,043 on Friday after 1,433 cases were reported since Thursday evening. Maharashtra and Gujarat continued to register maximum fresh cases on Thursday, with the former crossing the 10,000-mark.

Ahead of May 3, when the lockdown is scheduled to end, Union Health Secretary has asked state chief secretaries to "broadbase" the criteria for red, orange and green zones, and designate areas according to their assessment.

Meanwhile, the novel coronavirus has so far claimed at least 2,33,388 lives and infected at least 3.2 million people worldwide since its outbreak at the beginning of this year, according to a tally by John Hopkins University.

The United States continues to be the worst-hit, with over 10,69,424 cases and over 61,547 deaths.

The worst-affected countries in the world after the US in terms of infections are Spain (2,13,435), Italy (2,05,463), United Kingdom (1,72,481) and France (1,67,299).