COVID-19 case tally rises over 26.47 lakh in India, death toll crosses 50,000

With 57,981 new cases, India's COVID-19 tally rose to 26,47,663 on Monday, while death toll due to disease crossed 50,000-mark with 941 fresh fatalities, according to Union health ministry.

number of people who have recuperated from COVID-19 in India also went past 19 lakh on Monday with a record 57,584 patients recovering within a span of 24 hours. recovery rate has rise to over 72 per cent, data showed.

India's COVID-19 recoveries have reached 19,19,842, while actual caselo, that is number of active cases, stands at 6,76,900 as on date and comprises only 25.57 per cent of total positive cases.

total number of tests for detection of COVID-19 has crossed three crore-mark in India, with health ministry asserting that "new landmark" has been achieved due to expanded network of diagstic labs and facilitation of easy testing across country.

A total of 3,00,41,400 samples have been tested until August 16 with 7,31,697 being examined on Sunday, Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) said.

death toll due to COVID-19 climbed to 50,921 with 941 people succumbing to disease in a span of 24 hours. case fatality rate has declined to 1.92 per cent.

According to a PTI tally, compiled with data provided by various state governments, country's tally of cases stood at 26,95,230, while death toll was at 51,840.

ministry in a statement said high recovery rate is result of successful and coordinated implementation of an effective containment strategy, aggressive and comprehensive testing coupled with standardized clinical manment of critical patients.

India has followed a standard of care protocol for differentiated categorisation of COVID-19 patients -- mild, moderate and severe as clearly formulated in Clinical Manment Protocol of Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW), it said.

Effective clinical manment strategies have yielded positive results, ministry said, ding that India has been marching firmly on ro to enhanced recoveries every day.

In a testament to focussed, consistent and coordinated efforts of Centre, states and Union Territories, India has set a new landmark of conducting three crore tests, ministry said in a separate statement on number of tests crossing three-crore mark.

Expanded diagstic lab network and facilitation for easy testing across country have given a substantial boost to testing capacity, it said.

"With 7,31,697 tests conducted in last 24 hours, India is on its resolved drive to increase its testing capacity to 10 lakh tests daily. Building on this achievement, Tests Per Million (TPM) have seen a sharp increase to 21,769," ministry said.

While cumulative testing rose from 1.2 crore on July 14 to three crore on August 16, positivity rate has seen a rise from 7.5 per cent to 8.81 per cent in same period, statement said.

"Although higher number of tests will push positivity rate initially, but as Delhi experience has amply shown, it will eventually lower when combined with or measures such as prompt isolation, tracking and timely clinical manment," ministry said.

ting that aggressive testing les to early identification and isolation of COVID-19 positive cases, ministry said this coupled with efficient clinical treatment brings fatality rate down.

"Thus, enhanced and timely testing is t only keeping positivity rate low but also fatality rate low," it said.