India's active COVID-19 cases remain below 9 lakh for second day in a row

New Delhi: India reported 73,272 new coronavirus cases in a span of 24 hours, taking the overall caseload to 69,79,423, while 59,88,822 people have recuperated so far, pushing the recovery rate to 85.81 percent, said the Union Health Ministry on Saturday. The COVID-19 toll climbed to 1,07,416 with 926 people succumbing to the viral infection in the past 24 hours, the data updated at 8 am showed. For the second day in a row, the number of active coronavirus cases remained below 9 lakh. There are 8,83,185 active cases of infection in the country which make 12.65 percent of the total caseload, the data stated. While the COVID-19 case fatality rate was recorded at 1.54 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 and crossed 60 lakh on 28 September. According to the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), a cumulative 8,57,98,698 samples have been tested up to 9 October. As many as 11,64,018 samples were tested on Friday alone. The 926 new fatalities include 302 from Maharashtra, 114 from Karnataka, 68 from Tamil Nadu, 62 from West Bengal, 48 from Uttar Pradesh, 39 from Delhi, 38 from Chhattisgarh, 32 from Punjab, 31 from Andhra Pradesh. The total 1,07,416 deaths reported so far in the country include 39,732 from Maharashtra, followed by 10,120 from Tamil Nadu, 9,789 from Karnataka, 6,293 from Uttar Pradesh, 6,159 from Andhra Pradesh, 5,692 from Delhi, 5,501 from West Bengal, 3,773 from Punjab and 3,547 from Gujarat. The health ministry stressed that more than 70 per cent of the deaths occurred due to comorbidities. “Our figures are being reconciled with the Indian Council of Medical Research,” the ministry said on its website, adding that state-wise distribution of figures is subject to further verification and reconciliation.