India's Covid tally crosses 67 lakh; 57 lakh recovered

India's COVID-19 tally of cases climbed to 67.57 lakh with 72,049 new cases in a day, while 57,44,693 people have recuperated so far pushing the national recovery rate to 85.02 per cent on Wednesday, according to the Union health ministry data.

The total coronavirus cases mounted to 67,57,131, while the death toll climbed to 1,04,555 with the novel coronavirus virus claiming 986 lives in a span of 24 hours in the country, the data updated at 8 am showed.

The COVID-19 case fatality rate has further declined to 1.55 per cent.

There are 907883 active cases of coronavirus infection in the country which comprises 13.44 per cent of the total caseload, the data stated.

According to the ICMR, a cumulative total of 8,22,71,654 samples have been tested up to October 6 with 11,99,857 samples being tested on Tuesday.

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 15.

India's COVID-19 cases jumped from 10 lakh to 20 lakh in 21 days. Then it took 16 more days to race past 30 lakh, 13 days more to cross the 40-lakh mark, 11 days to go past 50 lakh and 12 days to cross 60 lakh.

It took 110 days for the COVID-19 cases in the country to reach one lakh while it had taken 59 days more to go past the 10-lakh post.

Of the 986 fresh deaths, 370 are from Maharashtra, 91 from Karnataka, 71 from Tamil Nadu, 63 from West Bengal, 61 from Uttar Pradesh, 39 from Delhi, 38 from Punjab, 33 from Andhra Pradesh, 25 each from Madhya Pradesh and Kerala, 23 from Chhattisgarh and 18 each from Haryana and Assam.

Sixteen fatalities have been reported each from Odisha and Jammu and Kashmir, 15 from Rajasthan, 10 each from Jharkhand and Gujarat, eight each from Uttarakhand, Telangana and Goa, five from Himachal Pradesh, three each from Sikkim, Puducherry, Manipur and Chandigarh and one each from Meghalaya, Bihar and Arunachal Pradesh.

Of the total 1,04,555 deaths, Maharashtra has reported the maximum at 38,717 followed by 9,917 in Tamil Nadu, 9,461 in Karnataka, 6,153 in Uttar Pradesh, 6,052 in Andhra Pradesh, 5,581 in Delhi, 5,318 in West Bengal, 3,679 in Punjab and 3,519 in Gujarat.

So far, 2488 people have died of COVID-19 in Madhya Pradesh, 1,574 in Rajasthan, 1509 in Haryana, 1268 in Jammu and Kashmir, 1189 from Telangana, 1104 in Chhattisgarh, 940 in Odisha, 925 in Bihar, 884 in Kerala, 778 in Assam, 757 in Jharkhand, and 677 in Uttarakhand.

Puducherry has registered 546 fatalities, Goa 468, Tripura 301, Chandigarh 180, Himachal Pradesh 229, Andaman and Nicobar Islands 54, Manipur 78, Ladakh 61, Meghalaya 60, Arunachal Pradesh 20, Sikkim 49, Nagaland 17 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 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.