MUMBAI, March 25 (Xinhua) -- India's western state of Maharashtra has crossed the 100-case mark of COVID-19 by reaching 101 active cases of the virus including three foreign nationals, as per the Wednesday morning update by health ministry.
As per the update, India has 562 active cases of the virus including 43 foreign nationals with its southern state of Kerala leading the tally with 109 cases including eight foreign nationals.
In his second address to the nation on Tuesday night, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday announced a complete lockdown across the country for 21 days for a decisive battle, saying or else India would "lose the war against the virus outbreak and slide back by 21 years."
According to a report released earlier this week by India Council of Medical Research, a state-run bio-medical research body, one infected person would only infect 1.5 others under the most optimistic scenario while four people or more could be infected from one positive patient under the most pessimistic one.
India had seen its case count rise to over five times in 10 days after reporting 100 cases as on March 15.
The report had also suggested that the country ranks 17th among the countries at the highest risk of importation of virus through air travel.
