New Delhi: With another big single-day jump in coronavirus cases, India’s COVID-19 tally crossed the seven lakh-mark on Monday, just four days after the number of infections in the country had reached six lakh.
The death toll due to the disease climbed to over 20,000, while the total number of tests for detection of COVID-19 also crossed the one-crore mark in India on Monday.
According to Union health ministry figures updated in the morning, a big single-day jump of 24,248 COVID-19 cases took India’s tally to 6,97,413, while the death toll due to the disease climbed to 19,693 with 425 new fatalities.
However, a PTI tally showed India’s COVID-19 caseload at 7,11,878 and the death toll at 20,139. The tally has been compiled as per information provided by respective states and union territories. The country recorded over 20,000 cases of the infection for the fourth consecutive day. India went past Russia on Sunday to become the third worst-hit nation by the COVID-19 pandemic. Only the US and Brazil are ahead of India in terms of total coronavirus infections.
Cases have been consistently rising in the country. It took 110 days for coronavirus cases in the country to reach one lakh, while just 48 days more to go past the seven lakh-mark.
With a steady rise, the number of recoveries stand at 4,24,432 in the country, while one patient has migrated.
There are 2,53,287 active coronavirus cases in the country, the ministry’s data showed.
During the last 24 hours, a total of 15,350 COVID-19 patients have been cured, the ministry said. “Thus, 60.86 per cent of the patients have recovered so far,” the ministry said.
The total number of confirmed cases also includes foreigners who tested positive in India. According to the health ministry, during the last 24 hours, 3,46,459 samples have been tested with the cumulative number of samples tested till now being 1,01,35,525.
“This signifies the importance accorded to widespread testing and the focussed ‘test, trace, treat’ strategy with several follow-up measures taken in tandem by the Central government and the States/UTs,” the ministry said.
This achievement has also been possible by the continuously expanding network of testing labs throughout the country and as of today there are more than 1,105 labs for COVID tests.
There are 788 labs in the government sector and 317 private labs. The Centre on Monday said the national positivity rate, percentage of samples testing coronavirus positive from the total number of samples, has also reduced and now stands at 6.73 per cent.
It said the average number of samples being tested per day for COVID-19 has gone up in Delhi from 5,481 to 18,766 in about a month and in spite of increased testing, the positivity rate has declined from around 30 per cent to 10 per cent in the last three weeks.
The Union, state and union territory governments have made a joint and coordinated effort to effectively manage the COVID-19 pandemic in the country, the health ministry said in a statement.
As part of the coordinated efforts, the Union government has emphasised on increasing testing, prompt contact tracing and timely clinical management of cases, the statement said. (PTI)
