Coronavirus Update: India crosses 68 lakh cases; death toll surpasses 1.05 lakh

New Delhi:  India on Wednesday recorded 78,809 new Covid-19 cases, taking the count to 68,32,988. Meanwhile, 971 deaths occurred in the last 24 hours, pushing the toll to 1,05,551.  A total of 83,011 people also successfully fought the virus in the last 24 hours. The total recovery registered across the nation is 58,27,704.

India’s recovery rate increased marginally to 85.3 per cent, death rate stood steady at 1.5 per cent and daily positivity rate increased to 6.5 per cent as almost 12 lakh tests were conducted in the last 24 hours.

Of the new cases,  about 18 per cent of all cases in the country, were reported from Maharashtra (14,578), followed by almost 11,000 new cases in Karnataka, then Kerala with more than 10,000 cases, with Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, both, reporting about 5,000 cases each. These states together accounted for almost 60 per cent of all cases reported in the country.

Meanwhile, On the Vaccine front, the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) has given its consent for directing Phase-I human clinical trial for an “antisera” that was created by infusing inactivated SARS-CoV-2 in ponies and can be a potential Covid treatment. 

According to the Indian Council of Medical Research, 11,94,321 samples tested for Covid-19 yesterday. Total 8,34,65,975 samples tested in the country up to 7th October

After US, which has 75 lakh coronavirus cases, India is the second worst-hit country by the coronavirus pandemic, followed by Brazil.