India’s COVID-19 tally hurtled past the 30-lakh mark on Saturday night

New Delhi: India’s COVID-19 tally hurtled past the 30-lakh mark on Saturday night, just 16 days after it crossed 20 lakh, while the total number of recoveries too surged to 22.71 lakh, according to data from states and union territories.Union health ministry data updated on Saturday 8 am showed a record single-day spike of 69,874 infections, taking the country’s COVID-19 caseload to 29,75,701, while the death toll due to the disease climbed to 55,794 with 945 fatalities reported in the last 24 hours. However, by night, a tally showed India’s COVID-19 caseload at 30,37,657, death toll at 56,762 and recoveries at 22,71,054. The tally has been compiled as per information provided by the states and union territories. India is the third worst-hit nation in terms of COVID-19 cases after the US and Brazil. The Union health ministry on Saturday said the total number of recoveries has surged to 22,22,577 pushing the recovery rate to 74.69 per cent while the case fatality rate has further declined to 1.87 per cent. Recoveries exceeded active cases of the coronavirus infection by more than 15 lakhs. India also crossed a significant milestone of testing more than 10 lakh samples for COVID-19 in 24 hours on Friday, taking cumulative tests to 3,44,91,073, the health ministry said on Saturday.