With a record single-day surge of 55,078 infections, India's COVID-19 caseload raced past 16 lakh on Friday, just two days after it reached the 15-lakh mark, while the number of recoveries rose to 10,57,805, according to Union Health Ministry data.
The country has so far registered 16,38,870 instances of the coronavirus infection. The death toll increased to 35,747 with 779 fatalities being reported in 24 hours, the data updated at 8 am showed.
This is the second consecutive day that COVID-19 cases have increased by more than 50,000. The total number of confirmed cases also includes foreigners.
There are 5,45,318 active COVID-19 cases in the country. The recovery rate rose to 64.54 per cent while the fatality rate dropped further to 2.18 per cent.
According to the ICMR, a cumulative 1,88,32,970 samples have been tested up to July 30 with 6,42,588 being tested on Thursday.
Of the 779 deaths reported on Friday, 266 are from Maharashtra, 97 from Tamil Nadu, 83 from Karnataka, 68 from Andhra Pradesh and 57 from Uttar Pradesh.
West Bengal registered 46 deaths, Delhi 29, Gujarat 22, Jammu and Kashmir 17, Madhya Pradesh 14 and Rajasthan and Telangana 13 each.
Ten fatalities have been reported from Odisha, nine from Punjab, five from Jharkhand, four each from Bihar, Haryana, Manipur and Uttarakhand, three each from Goa and Chhattisgarh, two each from Assam, Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Kerala while Ladakh and Puducherry recorded one fatality each.
