A man reacts as a healthcare worker collects a swab sample amidst the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), at a testing centre, in New Delhi, India October 17, 2020. REUTERS/Adnan Abidi
New Delhi, October 19 (IANS): With a spike of 55,722 coronavirus cases and 579 deaths in 24 hours, India's tally on Monday crossed the 75-lakh mark with a total of 75,50,273 cases.
Out of these, 7,72,055 are currently active; 66,63,608 have been discharged, while 1,14,610 lost the battle against the pandemic.
According to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, India's active cases have fallen below eight lakh after six weeks and continue to slide further down.
The Ministry said: "22 states and UTs have less than 20,000 active cases, and only three are reporting more than 50,000 active caseload."
On Sunday, after denying for months, the Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan stated that India is in the stage of community transmission but it is limited to only certain districts and states.
While the recovery rate stands at 88.26 per cent, the fatality rate is 1.52 per cent, the MoHFW data said.
Maharashtra continues to be the worst-hit with a total of 15,95,381 cases including 42,115 deaths; followed by Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh and Delhi.
According to the data from the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), India conducted 8,59,786 sample tests in a single day on Sunday, taking the total number of samples tested so far to 9,50,83,976.