India’s COVID-19 tally zoomed past 13 lakh on Saturday, just two days after it crossed the 12 lakh mark, while the recoveries mounted to 8,49,431, according to the Union Health Ministry.
With 48,916 fresh cases, the country’s coronavirus infection tally surged to 13,36,861, while the death toll rose to 31,358 with 757 more people succumbing to the disease in the last 24 hours, data updated by the ministry at 8 am showed.
There are currently 4,56,071 active cases of COVID-19 in the country.
Thus, around 63.54 per cent people have recovered so far. The COVID-19 case fatality rate has further dropped to 2.35 per cent on Saturday, the ministry said.
The total number of confirmed cases includes foreigners.
This is the third consecutive day when COVID-19 cases increased by more than 45,000.
Of the 757 deaths reported, 278 were from Maharashtra, 108 from Karnataka, 88 from Tamil Nadu, 59 from Uttar Pradesh, 49 from Andhra Pradesh, 35 from West Bengal, 32 from Delhi, 26 from Gujarat, 14 from Jammu and Kashmir, 11 from Madhya Pradesh and eight each from Rajasthan and Telangana.
Assam, Chhattisgarh and Odisha have reported six fatalities each, followed by Punjab five deaths, Kerala and Haryana four each, Bihar and Jharkhand three each, and Puducherry, Tripura, Meghalaya and Nagaland one fatality each.
According to the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), a cumulative total of 1,58,49,068 samples have been tested up to July 24 with 4,20,898 samples being tested on Friday, the highest conducted in a day so far.
The Tests Per Million (TPM) has further increased to 11,485 and continue to maintain an upward trend, it underlined.
Of the total 31,358 deaths reported so far, Maharashtra tops the tally with 13,132 fatalities, followed by Delhi 3,777, Tamil Nadu 3,320, Gujarat 2,278, Karnataka 1,724, Uttar Pradesh 1,348, West Bengal 1,290, Andhra Pradesh 933 and Madhya Pradesh 791.
So far, 602 people have died of COVID-19 in Rajasthan, 455 in Telangana, 382 in Haryana, 296 in Jammu and Kashmir, 282 in Punjab, 220 in Bihar, 120 in Odisha, 76 in Assam, 70 in Jharkhand, 60 in Uttarakhand and 54 in Kerala.
Chhattisgarh has registered 36 deaths, Puducherry 35, Goa 29, Chandigarh 13, Himachal Pradesh and Tripura 11 each, Meghalaya five, Arunachal Pradesh three, Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu and Ladakh two each. Nagaland has reported one fatality.
The Health Ministry stressed that more than 70 per cent of the deaths occurred due to comorbidities.