India's COVID-19 tally goes past 34 lakh with single-day spike of 76,472 cases; death toll 62,550

India's COVID-19 tally raced past 34 lakh with a single-day spike of 76,472 cases, while the number of recoveries surged to 26,48,998, pushing the recovery rate to 76.47 per cent on Saturday, according to the Union health ministry.

The total number of COVID-19 cases rose to 34,63,972, while the death toll due to the disease climbed to 62,550 with 1,021 people succumbing to it in a span of 24 hours, the ministry's data updated at 8 am showed.

The COVID-19 case fatality rate has further declined to 1.81 per cent in the country.

There are 7,52,424 active coronavirus cases in the country currently, which account for 21.72 per cent of the total caseload, the data showed.

India's COVID-19 tally had crossed the 20-lakh mark on August 7 and the 30-lakh mark on August 23.

According to the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), a total of 4,04,066,09 samples were tested for COVID-19 up to August 28, including 9,28,761 on Friday.

Of the 1,021 fresh deaths, 331 were in Maharashtra, 136 in Karnataka, 102 in Tamil Nadu, 81 in Andhra Pradesh, 77 in Uttar Pradesh, 56 in West Bengal, 51 in Punjab, 20 each in Bihar and Delhi, 17 in Madhya Pradesh, 15 in Haryana, 14 in Gujarat, 12 in Rajasthan, 11 in Uttarakhand.

Nine fatalities each were reported from Puducherry and Telangana, eight each from Assam, Jharkhand and Odisha, seven each from Jammu and Kashmir and Kerala, six from Chhattisgarh, five from Tripura, four from Goa, two each from Chandigarh, Manipur and Meghalaya, while Ladakh registered one death.

Of the total 62,550 deaths, Maharashtra has accounted for the maximum of 23,775, followed by Tamil Nadu (7,050), Karnataka (5,368), Delhi (4,389), Andhra Pradesh (3,714), Uttar Pradesh (3,294), West Bengal (3,073), Gujarat (2,976) and Madhya Pradesh (1,323).

So far, 1,307 people have died of COVID-19 in Punjab, 1,017 in Rajasthan, 808 in Telangana, 678 in Jammu and Kashmir, 661 in Haryana, 558 in Bihar, 456 in Odisha, 381 in Jharkhand, 286 in Assam, 274 in Kerala, 251 in Chhattisgarh and 239 in Uttarakhand.

Puducherry has registered 199 COVID-19 fatalities, Goa 175, Tripura 94, Chandigarh 45, the Andaman and Nicobar Islands 42, Himachal Pradesh 33, Ladakh 28, Manipur 27, Meghalaya 10, Nagaland nine, Arunachal Pradesh five, Sikkim three and Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu two.

The health ministry said 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 a state-wise distribution of the figures is subject to further verification and reconciliation.