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India added over 397,000 Covid-19 cases in a week; tally surges past 3 million
There were 69,239 Covid-19 cases and 912 deaths between Saturday and Sunday morning, according to the health ministry’s dashboard at 8am.
India added 397,277 cases of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19), including more than 5,700 deaths, in a week, taking the country’s infection tally to over 3 million, data from the Union health ministry showed on Sunday.
There were 69,239 Covid-19 cases and 912 deaths between Saturday and Sunday morning, according to the health ministry’s dashboard at 8am. The country’s infection tally was at 2,647,663, including 50,921 deaths, at the beginning of the week on August 17.
According to the health ministry, the number of active cases stands at 707,668, up from 575,900 on Monday, on Sunday morning. The death toll stands at 56,706 after 912 fatalities were reported from across the country in the last 24 hours. There had been 50,921 deaths on Monday.
The recovery rate climbed to 74.89% as 57,989 patients of the viral disease were discharged from hospitals. There have been 2,280,566 recoveries in the country till date and 360,724 in a week. India’s recoveries now exceed active cases by more than 1.5 million.
“The record high recoveries have ensured that the actual caseload of the country viz. the active cases, has reduced and currently comprises only 23.43% of the total positive cases,” the health ministry said on Saturday.
“Early identification through aggressive TESTING, comprehensive surveillance & contact TRACING along with focus on timely and efficient clinical TREATMENT of patients have ensured speedy recovery. Higher number of recoveries and declining fatality have shown that India’s graded and pro-active strategy is delivering results on the field,” it added.
The government has said the country now has the capacity of carrying out over million tests for Covid-19 every day.
India is only the third country, behind Brazil and the United States, to record more than 3 million infections. The US has 5,667,179 Covid-19 cases and Brazil has 3,582,362, according to the coronavirus tracker of Baltimore-based Johns Hopkins University.
Globally, the number of infections has climbed to over 26 million and 803,499 deaths have been reported.
