COVID-19 cases in India now over 59 lakh, deaths cross 93,000

New Delhi, Sep 26: Coronavirus cases in India have gone past the 59 lakh-mark with the latest spike of over 85,000 fresh cases. The country has recorded 85,362 new coronavirus cases on Friday, the health ministry said on Saturday.

Acoording to the health ministry, India's total confirmed coronavirus cases now stand at 59,03,933. Apart from the 85,000 new COVID-19 cases, the death toll has also gone up by 1,089 and reached 93,379.

Among the total 59 lakh coronavirus cases, India now has 9,60,969 active cases and 48,49,585 recovered cases.

On Saturday, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) said, "7,02,69,975 samples have been tested up to September 25 (Friday) for Covid-19. Of these, 13,41,535 samples were tested on Friday."

It can be seen that India is the second most number of coronavirus cases after the United States, which has over 70 lakh confirmed cases so far.

Among the states, Maharashtra continues to be the worst-affected in India with over 12 lakh coronavirus cases and nearly 35,000 deaths. Maharashtra is followed by Andhra Pradesh, which has over 6.5 lakh coronavirus cases and over 5,500 deaths.

Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan said that more than 5 million people have been infected with coronavirus in India but the healthcare system has shown great efficiency in providing diagnostic and management facilities as well as keeping the mortality at 'minimum' and recovery at 'maximum'.

The health minister was speaking at an event to mark the 65th Foundation Day of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi on Friday when he made the observations.

He said the country's continuously rising COVID-19 recovery rate and progressively falling case fatality rate have proven the success of the containment strategy followed by all states/UTs.