India’s COVID Caseload Crosses 8 Lakh

New Delhi: India registered the highest single-day surge of 27,114 COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours, taking the country’s total caseload past the 8 lakh-mark to 8,20,916 on Saturday.

The death toll rose to 22,123 with 519 more succumbing to the infection across the country in the same period, the Union Health Ministry said.

Maharashtra remained the worst-affected state with 2,30,599 cases including 9,667 deaths, followed by Tamil Nadu (1,26,581) and Delhi (1,07,051).

On a positive note, the number of recovered cases (5,15,386) surpassed active cases by 2,31,979. The national recovery rate also improved to 62.42 per cent.

The Indian Council Of Medical Research said 1,13,07,002 samples have been tested for COVID-19 so far in the country, including 2,82,511 on Friday.

In a related development, officials and scientists from the Department of Science and Technology and Department of Biotechnology, CSIR reportedly expressed apprehension on Friday about producing a vaccine for COVID-19 before early 2021.