India reports highest one-day spike of 97,570 COVID-19 cases, tally crosses 46 lakh mark

India has reported an unprecedented surge in the number of COVID-19 infections being reported on a daily basis. On September 12, the country yet again reported its highest single-day spike of 97,750 cases taking the tally to over 46 lakhs, while 1,201 people succumbed to the virus, taking the death toll to 77,472.

The Union Health Ministry has taken to Twitter to explain the COVID-19 situation in the country. The Health Ministry posted a graph which depicted the percentage of COVID-19 recoveries has been improving on a regular basis as against the percentage of active cases in the country.

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Mortality rate decreased

The COVID-19 infections in the country are being detected due to the Centre's strategy of aggressive testing, after which, due treatment is being given to the infected patients, in turn, improving the recovery rate. The Health Ministry has apprised that India's mortality rate is one of the lowest in the world.  

Currently, the mortality rate stands at merely 1.67 per cent as compared to previously 2.15 per cent in the first week of August and the recovery rate is also improving massively with the mortality rate getting lower by the day. According to the Ministry, India's COVID-19 deaths per million population is 53 which is among the lowest across the world.

The Ministry had apprised that five states - Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh have approximately 62 per cent of the total COVID-19 cases in India and also account for 70 per cent of all the COVID-19 deaths in the country. According to the Ministry, India's COVID-19 deaths per million population is 53 which is among the lowest across the world.

The total number of COVID-19 infections in the country has risen to 46,59,984, of which 9,58,316 are active cases, while 36,24,196 have recovered from the infection and 77,472 have succumbed to the virus. About 10,91,251 samples were tested on Friday, taking the count of total COVID-19 tests to over 5.5 crores. The country is conducting more than 11 lakh tests on an average on a daily basis.

India's race to COVID-19 vaccine

India has three vaccine candidates in the race to develop a potential vaccine for the deadly virus. Hyderabad based Bharat Biotech's vaccine candidate Covaxin is in phase II of human trials. Bharat Biotech on Friday announced that its trials on animals were successful and has shown efficacy on the virus. The second candidate is Ahmedabad based Zydus Cadila's ZyCoV-D whereas the third one is being developed by Serum Institute of India in collaboration with the Oxford University vaccine and UK's Pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca. However, the Serum Institute has halted trials for its vaccine Covishield after a show-cause notice by Drugs Controller General of India.

(Image credits: PTI)

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