India’s Covid-19 cases cross 50 lakh-mark

IANS

New Delhi, 16 Sept 2020: With a massive spike of 90,123 cases, including 1,290 deaths in 24 hours, India’s tally on Wednesday crossed the grim mark of 50 lakh, according to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

 

The total corona tally stands at 50,20,359 cases.

 

On July 17, India had logged 10 lakh cases, which then doubled to 20 lakh in 20 days on August 7. The country added another 10 lakh on August 23 and went past 40 lakh on September 5. In 11 days, it added another 10 lakh cases, mounting to 50 lakh cases on Wednesday.

 

Out of the total cases, 9,95,933 are active, 39,42,360 have been discharged, while 82,066 lost the battle against the viral disease. In the last 24 hours, 82,961 patients were discharged.

 

While the recovery rate stands at a whopping high of 78.53 percent, the fatality rate has come down to 1.63 percent, the data from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said.

 

Maharashtra continues to be the worst-hit with a total of 10,97,856 cases, including 30,409 deaths; followed by Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh.

 

On Monday, the ministry asked Delhi, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, and Tamil Nadu to ramp up their testing. These are the states whose positivity rates are faring above the national average. Meanwhile, four of these states account for more than half (53.5 percent) of the active cases.

 

According to the data from the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), India conducted 11,16,842 sample tests in a single day on Tuesday, taking the total number of samples tested so far to 5,94,29,115.