Covid-19: India records 26,291 cases, 118 deaths

New Delhi, Mar 15: India recorded 26,291 new cases of the coronavirus disease and 118 deaths on Monday, its highest single-day spike in 85 days, taking the country''s infection tally to 1,13,85,339,naccording to the Union health ministry's data.

The death toll due to the disease increased to 1,58,725 with 118 more fatalities being recorded in a day, the data updated at 8 am showed.

Registering an upward trend for five days in a row, the total active caseload has gone up to 2,19,262 which is 1.93 per cent of the total infections in the country, while the recovery rate has dropped to 96.68 per cent, the data stated.

As many as 26,624 infections were recorded in a span of 24 hours on December 20.

The number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 1,10,07,352, while the case fatality rate stood at 1.39 per cent, according to the data.

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, 80 lakh on October 29, 90 lakh on November 20 and surpassed the one-crore mark on December 19.

According to Indian Council of Medical Research, 22,74,07,413 samples have been tested for COVID-19 up to March 14, including 7,03,772 on Sunday.