COVID-19 tally in India past 52 lakh, recovery rate 78.86%

India's COVID-19 tally raced past 52 lakh with 96,424 people testing positive in a day, while the number of people who have recuperated from the disease rose to 41,12,551 on Friday, according to the Union Health Ministry data.

The country's recovery rate stands at 78.86 percent.

The total coronavirus cases mounted to 52,14,677, while the death toll climbed to 84,372 with the virus claiming 1,174 lives in a span of 24 hours, the data updated at 8 am showed.

The COVID-19 case fatality rate due to the coronavirus infection has further dropped  to 1.62 percent.

There are 10,17,754 active cases of COVID-19 in the country which comprises 19.52 percent of the total caseload, the data stated.

India's COVID-19 tally had crossed the 20-lakh mark on August 7, 30 lakh on August 23, 40 lakh on September 5 and it went past  50 lakh on September 16.

According to the ICMR, a cumulative total of 6,15,72,343 samples have been tested up to September 17 with 10,06,615 samples being tested on Thursday.

Of the 1,174 new deaths, 468 are from Maharashtra, 93 from Karnataka, 81 from Uttar Pradesh, 72 from  Andhra Pradesh, 60 from West Bengal, 59 from Tamil Nadu, 54 from Punjab,38 from Delhi, 33 from Madhya Pradesh, 24 from Haryana, 19 from Jammu and Kashmir, 17 each from Assam and Chhattisgarh, 14 each from Gujarat and Rajasthan and 13 each from Odisha, Puducherry and Uttarakhand.   Eleven fatalities have been reported from Jharkhand and Telangana, nine from Kerala, eight from Goa, seven each from Bihar and Himachal Pradesh, six from Tripura, five from Chandigarh, three each from Manipur and Sikkim while Meghalaya has registered one new fatality.

A total of 84,372 deaths have been reported so far in the country including 31,351 from Maharashtra followed by 8,618 from Tamil Nadu, 7,629 from Karnataka, 5,177 from Andhra Pradesh, 4,877 from Delhi, 4,771 from Uttar Pradesh, 4,183 from West Bengal, 3,270 from Gujarat, 2,646 from Punjab and 1,877 from Madhya Pradesh.  The health ministry stressed that more than 70 percent 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.