Coronavirus crisis: India records 38,949 new COVID-19 cases in last 24 hours; 542 dead

New Delhi, July 16: Union health ministry on Friday said that India's caseload of COVID-19 climbed to 31,026,829 after 38,949 new cases were reported in the last 24 hours.

According to the health ministry, as many as 542 people died and 40,026 recovered from the viral disease in the said period, taking the cumulative death toll and recoveries to 412,531 and 30,183,876 respectively.

The active cases of COVID-19 stand at 430,422 and constitute 1.39 per cent of the caseload, the health ministry's update further showed.

It can be seen that Friday's cases are 2,857 less than that of Thursday's when 41,806 infections were seen. Meanwhile, the toll on Friday is 39 less than that of Thursday's when 581 deaths were reported.

A total of 440,023,239 samples have been tested for the Covid-19 disease so far of which 1,955,910 samples were tested in the last 24 hours, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) said on Friday.