With over 47,000 new cases in a day, India's COVID-19 tally nears 85 lakhs

With a fresh spike of 47,638 coronavirus infections and 670 deaths in 24 hours, India's tally on Friday rose to 84,11,724, said the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

Out of the total Covid-19 cases in the country, 5,20,773 are currently active, 77,65,966 have been discharged, and 1,24,985 lost the battle against the pandemic.

While the recovery rate stands at 92.32 per cent, the fatality rate is 1.49 per cent, the data from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare showed.

The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) conducted 11,64,648 sample tests in a single day on Thursday, taking the total number of samples tested so far to 10,77,28,088.

Maharashtra continues to be the worst-hit with a total of 17,03,444 cases, including 44,804 deaths; followed by Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and Delhi.

The national capital continued to log over 6,500 Covid cases on Thursday as well where it recorded 6,715 new infections, taking the overall coronavirus tally to 4,16,653 even as the positivity rate stood at 12.84 per cent amid the festive season and rising pollution in the city.

The overall number of global coronavirus cases has topped the 48.5 million mark, while the deaths have surged to more than 12,31,610, according to Johns Hopkins University.

As of Friday morning, the total caseload and death toll stood at 48,590,825 and 12,31,616, respectively, the University's Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) revealed in its latest update.

The US is the worst-hit country with the world's highest number of cases and deaths at 96,04,077 and 2,34,904, respectively, according to the CSSE. India comes in second place in terms of cases