Coronavirus outbreak: India records more than 78,000 COVID-19 cases; Tally above 3.62 million

New Delhi, Aug 31: Union Health Ministry on Monday said that India once again recorded over 78,000 new cases of the novel coronavirus which pushed the nationwide tally to 36,21,245.

This is for the second day in a row that the number of COVID-19 cases has stayed above the 78,000-mark. On Sunday, India had made a world record after recording 78,761 cases of the infection.

According to the health ministry, the number of active cases in the country has reached 7,81,975 whereas 27,74,801 patients have been discharged from hospitals. The death toll reached 64,469 after 971 fatalities were recorded in the last 24 hours.

This comes a day before the fourth phase of relaxation, Unlock 4, kicks in. The central government has announced resumption of metro train services and some other relaxation, which a few experts say will lead to surge in COVID-19 infections.

Meanwhile, testing has been ramped up exponentially which is leading to more number of cases getting detected.

On Saturday, India conducted more than 10.5 lakh tests which took the total number of tests to 4.14 crore, the health ministry said on Sunday.

The Centre, keeping in view the evolving global context of Covid-19, conceptualised and implemented the continuum of care strategy of "test, track and treat" in close coordination with the states and union territories, it said.