Nearly 67k Cases In 24 Hours Push India’s COVID-19 Tally Closer to 24 Lakh

New Delhi: With 66,999 new cases registered overnight, India’s COVID-19 tally inches closer to 24 lakh-mark to stand at 23,96,637 on Thursday. This is the country’s highest single-day surge in coronavirus cases so far.

Also, 942 people succumbed to the infection across the country in last 24 hours. The fatality rate dipped below 2 per cent and stands at 1.96 per cent taking the fatality count to 47,033. The country currently ranks fifth in the total number of deaths due to COVID-19.

According to the Union Health Ministry, 70.77 per cent (16,95,982) people have recovered while 27.27 per cent (6,53,622) are still under treatment.

The number of sample testing labs has increased to 1433. According to ICMR, the total number of samples tested are 2,68,45,588 including 8,30,391 on Wednesday.

The Indian Council of Medical Research’s National Institute of Virology (ICMR-NIV) has found at least 30 per cent of Severe Acute Respiratory Illness (SARI) cases were positive with COVID-19.

“A sizable number of people with the Covid-19 have been found among those hospitalised with SARI, in Pune. This is an ongoing activity. Of 4,939 referred SARI cases from January-end till August 4, a total of 1,501 were found positive for Covid-19,”  Prof Priya Abraham, director of ICMR-NIV, was quoted as saying by The Indian Express.