COVID-19: India records 18,599 new cases in last 24 hours

New Delhi, Mar 8: New cases of coronavirus infection in India were recorded above 18,000 for the third consecutive day taking the total tally of COVID-19 cases to 1,12,29,398, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Monday.

The active cases also registered an increase for the sixth consecutive day and the COVID-19 active caseload increased to 1,88,747 which now comprises 1.68 per cent of the total infections.

The recovery rate has dropped further to 96.91 per cent, the data stated.

A total of 18,599 new infections were registered in a day, while the death toll increased to 1,57,853 with 97 daily new fatalities, the data updated at 8 am showed.

On January 29, 18,855 new infections were recorded in a span of 24 hours.

The number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to1,08,82,798 which translates to a national COVID-19 recovery rate of 96.91 per cent, while the case fatality rate stands at 1.41 per cent.

India''s COVID-19 tally had crossed the 20-lakh mark on August 7, 30 lakh on August 23, 40 lakh on September 5 and 50 lakh on September 16.It went past 60 lakh on September 28, 70 lakh on October 11, crossed 80 lakh on October 29, 90 lakh on November 20 and surpassed the one-crore mark on December 19.

According to the ICMR, 22,19,68,271 samples have been tested up to March 7 with 5,37,764 samples being tested on Sunday.