India's COVID-19 tally crosses 29 lakh mark

India's COVID-19 tally zoomed past 29 lakh, a day after it crossed 28 lakh, with a single-day spike of 68,898 infections, while the recoveries have increased to 21,58,946 on Friday pushing the recovery rate to over 74 per cent, according to the Union health ministry data.

The total cases of coronavirus infections mounted to 29,05,823, while the death toll climbed to 54,849 with 983 new fatalities being reported in a span of 24 hours, the data updated at 8 am showed.

Case fatality rate has declined to 1.89 per cent while the recovery rate has risen to 74.30 per cent.

There are 6,92,028 active cases of coronavirus infection in the country which is 23.82 per cent of the total caseload, the data stated.

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

According to the Indian Council of Medical Research, a cumulative total of 3,34,67,237 samples have been tested up to August 20 with 8,05,985 samples being tested on Thursday.

Of the 983 fresh deaths, 326 are from Maharashtra, 116 from Tamil Nadu, 102 from Karnataka, 95 each from Andhra Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh, 53 from West Bengal, 36 from Punjab, 22 from Delhi, 16 from Gujarat, 12 from Madhya Pradesh, 11 each from Haryana and Rajasthan.

Nine fatalities each have been reported from Jharkhand, Kerala and Uttarakhand, eight each from Assam, Odisha, Telangana and Puducherry, seven from Chhattisgarh, six from Jammu and Kashmir, five from Bihar, four each from Himachal Pradesh and Tripura, two from Goa while Andaman and Nicobar Islands have registered one fatality each.

Of the total 54,849 deaths, Maharashtra has reported the maximum at 21,359, followed by 6,239 in Tamil Nadu, 4,429 in Karnataka, 4,257 in Delhi, 3,001 in Andhra Pradesh, 2,853 in Gujarat, 2,733 in Uttar Pradesh, 2,634 in West Bengal and 1,171 in Madhya Pradesh.

So far, 957 people have died of COVID-19 in Punjab, 921 in Rajasthan, 737 in Telangana, 578 each in Jammu and Kashmir and Haryana, 492 in Bihar, 380 in Odisha, 286 in Jharkhand, 221 in Assam, 191 in Kerala and 187 in Uttarakhand.

Chhattisgarh has registered 168 deaths, Puducherry 137, Goa 126, Tripura 69, Chandigarh and Andaman and Nicobar Islands 31, Himachal Pradesh 23, Manipur and Ladakh 18 each, Nagaland eight, Meghalaya six, Arunachal Pradesh five, Sikkim three and Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu two.

The health ministry stressed that more than 70 per cent of the deaths occurred due to co-morbidities.

"Our figures are being reconciled with the Indian Council of Medical Research," the ministry said, adding that state-wise distribution of figures is subject to further verification and reconciliation.