India's active COVID-19 cases drop below 8 lakh for first time in one and a half months

New Delhi: India’s COVID-19 caseload went past 74 lakh on Saturday, while the number of people who have recuperated from the disease crossed 65 lakh pushing the recovery rate to 87.78 percent, according to the Union Health Ministry. The death toll climbed to 1,12,998 with the virus claiming 837 lives in a day. The total number of confirmed cases mounted to 74,32,680 after 62,212 more people tested positive for the infectious disease, the data updated at 8 am showed. The active cases of coronavirus infection dropped below eight lakh for the first time in one-and-half months, the ministry said. For nine days in a row the active cases remained below nine lakh. There are 7,95,087 active cases of coronavirus infection in the country which comprises 10.70 percent of the total caseload, while the recoveries have surged to 65,24,595, according to the data. The COVID-19 case fatality rate due COVID-19 was recorded at 1.52 percent. India’s COVID-19 tally had crossed the 20-lakh mark on 7 August, 30 lakh on 23 August and 40 lakh on 5 September. It went past 50 lakh on 16 September, 60 lakh on 28 September and crossed 70 lakh on 11 October. According to the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), a cumulative total of 9,32,54,017 samples have been tested up to October 16 with 9,99,090 samples being tested on Friday.