NEW DELHI: India's single-day recovery outstripped the number of new infections as nearly 96,000 people recuperated from the novel coronavirus, even as the total number of cases went past 53 lakh, according to the Union Health Ministry data on Saturday.
The figures updated at 8 am showed that while 95,880 people recovered from the virus in a span of 24 hours, 93,337 new infections were recorded during the period.
With the latest inclusions, the total caseload mounted to 53,08,014 and the recoveries to 42,08,431, pushing the recovery rate to 79.28 per cent.
The death toll, meanwhile, climbed to 85,619 with the virus claiming 1,247 lives in a span of 24 hours, the updated data showed.
The COVID-19 case fatality rate has further dropped at 1.61 per cent, the data showed.
There are 10,13,964 active cases of COVID-19 in the country, which constitute 19.10 per cent of the total caseload, the data stated.
The country's COVID-19 tally had crossed the 20-lakh mark on August 7, the 30-lakh mark on August 23, 40 lakh on September 5, and it went past 50 lakh on September 16.
According to the Indian Council of Medical Research, a cumulative 6,24,54,254 COVID-19 samples have been tested up to September 18 -- 8,81,911 of them on Friday.