India's Covid tally crosses 39 lakh with 83,341 new cases

India's COVID-19 tally went past 39 lakh on Friday with 83,341 fresh cases reported in a span of 24 hours, while the number of recoveries crossed the 30-lakh mark, pushing the recovery rate of coronavirus patients in the country to 77.15 per cent, according to the Union health ministry.

The total number of COVID-19 cases mounted to 39,36,747, while the death toll due to the disease climbed to 68,472 with 1,096 people succumbing to it in a day, the ministry's data updated at 8 am showed.

The COVID-19 case fatality rate has further declined to 1.74 per cent in the country.

There are 8,31,124 active coronavirus cases in the country, which account for 21.11 per cent of the total caseload, the data stated.

The country registered over 80,000 fresh COVID-19 cases for the second consecutive day.

India is the third worst-hit nation by the pandemic after the US and Brazil in terms of cases and deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins University, which has been compiling COVID-19 data from all over the world.

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, a total of 4,66,79,145 samples were tested for COVID-19 in the country as on September 3, including 11,69,765 on Thursday.

Of the 1,096 fresh deaths, 391 were in Maharashtra, 104 in Karnataka, 92 in Tamil Nadu, 75 each in Uttar Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh, 72 in Punjab, 55 in West Bengal, 30 in Madhya Pradesh, 26 in Bihar, 19 each in Delhi and Haryana, 16 each in Chhattisgarh and Gujarat, 14 in Rajasthan and 11 in Jammu and Kashmir.

Ten fatalities each were reported from Kerala and Telangana, nine from Uttarakhand, eight each from Goa and Odisha, seven each from Assam and Puducherry, six from Jharkhand, five from Himachal Pradesh, four from Chandigarh, three each from Manipur and Tripura while one death was recorded in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

Of the total 68,472 deaths, Maharashtra accounts for the maximum of 25,586, followed by 7,608 in Tamil Nadu, 6,054 in Karnataka, 4,500 in Delhi, 4,200 in Andhra Pradesh, 3,691 in Uttar Pradesh, 3,394 in West Bengal, 3,062 in Gujarat and 1,690 in Punjab.

So far, 1,483 people have died of COVID-19 in Madhya Pradesh, 1,095 in Rajasthan, 866 in Telangana, 743 in Jammu and Kashmir, 740 in Haryana, 672 in Bihar, 522 in Odisha, 444 in Jharkhand, 330 in Assam, 315 each in Kerala and Chhattisgarh and 300 in Uttarakhand.

Puducherry has registered 260 COVID-19 fatalities, Goa 212, Tripura 129, Chandigarh 63, the Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Himachal Pradesh 48 each, Ladakh 35, Manipur 32, Meghalaya 13, Nagaland nine, Arunachal Pradesh seven, Sikkim four and Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu two.

The ministry stressed that over 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.