India surpassed Brazil on Monday to become the second worst COVID-19 affected nation, with 90 thousand cases recorded in the 24 hours taking the tally past the 42 lakh mark, according to the data provided by the Health Ministry. For the first time, more than 90 thousand cases have been recorded on two consecutive days. India reported a record 90,802 cases on Monday. The USA has the most recorded cases of COVID-19 in the world at 62.75 lakh.
India has been reporting a high daily spike of COVID-19 cases in the world for nearly a month, according to data by the World Health Organisation. The record surge in cases comes as metro services restart across the country on Monday with strict measures to curb the spread of the virus.
The government added that India’s total recovered cases have crossed 32.5 lakh on Monday, with 69,564 patients being discharged in the last 24 hours. This has resulted in the recovery rate touching 77.31%.
The fatality rate stood at 1.7% on Monday, which is quite close to the global average at 1.4%. The positivity rate stood at 12.6% on Monday morning as compared to Sunday’s 8.2%. Five States are contributing 60% of total cases, with Maharashtra at the top with 21.6%, followed by Andhra Pradesh (11.8%), Tamil Nadu (11.0%), Karnataka (9.5%) and Uttar Pradesh at 6.3%, the government release added.
India's COVID-19 tally had crossed the 20-lakh mark on August 7, 30 lakh on August 23 and it went past 40 lakh on September 5. According to the ICMR, a cumulative total of 4,95,51,507 samples have been tested up to September 6 with 7,20,362 samples being tested on Sunday.
India has been following a tried and tested strategy of 'test, track, treat'. "Sustained efforts through early diagnosis and timely and effective treatment continue to steadily push the CFR down," the Health Ministry said in a tweet.