New Delhi: India’s Covid-19 tally crossed 30 lakhs mark on Saturday night, just 16 days after it crossed 20 lakh, while the total number of recoveries too surged to 22.71 lakh. As per the 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.

According to the Government 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 Covid- 19infection 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. There are 6, 97,330 active cases of Covid- 19 infection in the country which comprises 23.43 per cent of the total caseload, it stated.

The Indian Council of Medical Research said India has been conducting on an average 8, 89,935 tests in the last five days. The country has tested 3, 44,91,073 samples across the country till August 21, it said.

India also has been testing around 74.7 people per lakh population, much higher than WHO’s guidelines of testing 14 people per lakh population, the apex health research body said.

Of the total 55,794 deaths, Maharashtra has reported the maximum at 21,698 followed by 6,340 in Tamil Nadu, 4,522 in Karnataka, 4,270 in Delhi, 3,092 in Andhra Pradesh, 2,867 in Gujarat, 2,797 in Uttar Pradesh, 2,689 in West Bengal and 1,185 in Madhya Pradesh. So far, 991 people have died of Covid-19 in Punjab, 933 in Rajasthan, 744 in Telangana, 593 in Jammu and Kashmir, 585 in Haryana, 498 in Bihar, 390 in Odisha, 297 in Jharkhand, 227 in Assam, 203 in Kerala and 192 in Uttarakhand.

Chhattisgarh has registered 180 deaths, Puducherry 143, Goa 135, Tripura 70, Chandigarh 33, the Andaman and Nicobar Islands 32, Himachal Pradesh 25, Manipur 20, Ladakh 19, Nagaland eight, Meghalaya six, Arunachal Pradesh five, Sikkim three and Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu two.