India’s COVID-19 tally crosses 40 lakh, death toll nears 70,000

The number of COVID-19 cases in India soared past the figure of 40 lakh, the ministry of health and family welfare announced on Saturday.

The milestone was crossed after the country recorded its highest-ever surge in COVID-19 cases in a single day, with 86,432 cases being recorded in the 24 hours ended at 8am on Saturday.

The number of COVID-19 cases in India as of Saturday stood at 40,23,179. The number of COVID-19 fatalities in India has reached 69,561, with 1,089 deaths being recorded in the past 24 hours.

India is on track to overtake Brazil as the nation with the second-highest number of COVID-19 cases within days. Reuters reported there are “initial signs” the virus is easing in Brazil. On Friday, Brazil recorded a rise of 51,194 COVID-19 cases. Brazil has reported a total of 4,091,801 COVID-19 cases so far.

The rise from 30 lakh COVID-19 cases to 40 lakh in India took just 13 days. India’s COVID-19 cases jumped from 10 lakh to 20 lakh in 21 days. It took 16 more days to race past 30 lakh and 13 days more to cross the 40-lakh mark.

It took 110 days for the COVID-19 cases in the country to reach one lakh while it had taken 59 days more to go past the 10-lakh figure.

The COVID-19 case fatality rate has further declined to 1.73 per cent.

There are 8,46,395 active cases of coronavirus infection, which is 21.04 per cent of the total caseload, the data stated.