India records 63,489 new corona cases, 944 more fatalities

Aug 16, 2020
New Delhi:  With a single-day spike of 63,489 coronavirus cases, India’s total tally reached 25,89,682 even as its death toll climbed up to 49,980 with 944 more fatalities in the last 24 hours, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MOHFW) data said on Sunday.

Of the total cases, 6,77,444 are still active. A total of 18,62,258 coronavirus patients has recovered so far, including 53,322 who won the battle against the virus in the last one day.

The fatality rate — the proportion of people who die of the disease among individuals diagnosed — dropped to 1.93 per cent, the Ministry said, adding that the recovery rate had gone up to 71.91 per cent.

Maharashtra remained the worst-hit state with 1,56,719 active cases, of which 4,854 came up in the last one day. The state recorded 6,844 more recoveries, taking the total cured patients to 4,08,286. As many as 19,749 patients have succumbed to Covid-19 in Maharashtra so far, including 322 in the last one day.

Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka followed with 88,138 and 81,284 active cases respectively. Andhra Pradesh reported 1,769 new cases, while Karnataka reported 2,075 fresh cases in the last 24 hours.

India has been reporting over 60,000 cases daily since August 7, barring August 11 when the country registered 53,601 new coronavirus infections.

A total of 7,46,608 samples were tested for coronavirus infection in the last 24 hours, taking the total samples tested to 2,93,09,703. Of the 1,469 labs in the country, 969 are government-run and 500 in the private sector.

Of the total 1,469 labs, Real-Time RT PCR can be conducted in 754 labs. A total of 598 labs are carrying out TrueNat Test and the remaining 117 CBNAAT Test, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) data said.

Globally, India remains the third worst-hit nation, with the US and Brazil in the first and second position with 53,61,165 and 33,17,096 corona cases respectively. The global tally is 2,14,59,699 cases.

The Covid-19 fatalities across the world total 7,71,063, with 1,69,481 deaths in the US alone and another 1,07,232 fatalities in Brazil. Mexico has reported the third highest death toll at 56,543.IANS