Coronavirus: India records nearly 70,000 COVID-19 cases in last 24 hours; Tally over 2.8 million

New Delhi, Aug 20: Union Health Ministry on Thursday said India saw another huge spike in the number of new coronavirus disease cases in the last 24 hours. According to the health ministry, the country recorded 69,652 fresh cases which pushed the tally to 28,36,925.

The number of active cases in the country are 6,86,395, while the number of those discharged from the hospitals stands at 20,96,664.

India also recorded 977 deaths in the last 24 hours, the number of fatalities reached 53,866.

The daily death toll from the coronavirus pandemic in India crossed the 1,000-mark for the third time in the last 10 days as the country reported 1,103 fatalities on Tuesday.

Before Tuesday, daily deaths in the country have crossed the 1,000-mark four times - 2,004 fatalities were recorded on June 16, 1,130 on July 22, 1,018 on August 9 and 1,010 on August 13.

The country also achieved another milestone when more than eight lakh samples were tested for the deadly virus for the second consecutive day in a row.

"The cumulative testing as on date has reached 3,17,42,782. The Tests Per Million too have seen a sharp rise to 23,002," the ministry had said.

"The sustained level of high testing has played a key role in India's increasing rate of recovery, widening gap between the recovered and active cases, and also progressively declining fatality rate," it further added.