BENGALURU:
A record single-day increase of 97,894 infections pushed India's COVID-19 tally to over 51 lakh, while the number of people who have recuperated from the disease crossed 40 lakh on Thursday, according to the Union Health Ministry data.
With 5.12 million cases in all, India is the world’s second-worst affected country, and trails only the United States, which has a caseload of around 6.6 million.
Deaths, which have been relatively low so far, are showing an uptick, and the country has recorded more than 1,000 deaths every day for the last two weeks.
On Thursday, the federal health ministry said 1,132 people died of COVID-19 in the last 24 hours, taking total fatalities from the disease to 83,198.
The total recoveries surged to 40,25,079 while the active cases of COVID-19 crossed 10 lakh for the first time.
The COVID-19 case fatality rate due to the coronavirus infection was recorded at 1.63 per cent.
There are 10,09,976 active cases of COVID-19 in the country which comprises 19.73 per cent of the total caseload, the data stated
Health Minister Harsh Vardhan on Thursday said India''s COVID-19 mortality rate at 1.64 percent is lowest in the world and the government is targeting to bring it down to less than 1 percent.
Replying to a debate in the Rajya Sabha, he said India''s recovery rate of 78-79 percent is one of the highest in the world.
He said though total cases may have crossed 50 million, active cases are less than 20 percent.Deaths in India due to coronavirus pandemic are less than many nations in Europe, he said, adding the government was determined to cross the US in testing rate as well.
India's COVID-19 tally had crossed the 20-lakh mark on August 7, 30 lakh on August 23, 40 lakh on September 5 and and it went past 50 lakh on September 16.
According to the ICMR, a cumulative total of 6,05,65,728 samples have been tested up to September 16 with 11,36,613 samples being tested on Wednesday.
The total coronavirus cases mounted to 51,18,253, while the death toll climbed to 83,198 with the virus claiming 1,132 lives in a span of 24 hours, the data updated at 8 am showed.