India records 78,356 new COVID-19 cases, 1,045 deaths in a day; tally breaches 37-lakh mark

With 78,356 people testing positive for coronavirus infection on Wednesday, India's COVID-19 tally mounted to 37,69,523 including 8,01,282 active cases while recoveries surged to 29,01,908, according to Union Health Ministry data.

The death toll, meanwhile, climbed to 66,333 with 1,045 new fatalities being reported in a span of 24 hours, the data updated at 8 am showed.

The COVID-19 case fatality rate has declined further and now stands at 1.77 per cent, as per health ministry data. There are 801282 active cases which constitutes 21.29 per cent of the total caseload, the data stated.

Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh are the five states which reported the highest number of cases in the last 24 hours.

India's COVID-19 tally had crossed the 20-lakh mark on August 7 and went past 30 lakh on August 23. According to the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), a cumulative 4,33,24,834 samples have been tested up to August 31, 10,16,920 of them on Monday.

Maharashtra remains the state hit hardest by the pandemic, 1,98,866 active COVID -19 cases and 24,903 deaths. Maharashtra is followed by three southern states - Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. India is the country with the third-highest coronavirus caseload in the world after the United States and Brazil.

State-wise coronavirus cases in India: 

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