With 964 deaths in a day, India records 70,495 new COVID-19 cases in 24 hours

New Delhi, Oct 09: Union health ministry on Friday said that India recorded as many as 70,495 new coronavirus cases and 964 deaths in the last 24 hours, the lowest in months. India's COVID-19 tally crossed 69 lakh-mark with Maharashtra recording the highest number of cases.

The total cases of coronavirus stand at 6,906,151 while the death toll increased to 1,06,490, the data updated at 8 am showed. Out of these 8,93,592 are active cases, 59,06,069 recovered, according to the health ministry.

The overall number of global coronavirus cases has topped 36.4 million, while the deaths have soared to more than 1,060,860, according to the Johns Hopkins University.

It can be seen that the US is the worst-hit country with the world's highest number of cases and deaths at 7,603,746 and 212,716, respectively. India comes in second place in terms of cases at 6,835,655, while the country's death toll soared to 105,526.

On Thursday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that India's coronavirus fight is people-driven and gets great strength from its COVID warriors. He also urged people to follow COVID appropriate behaviour.

Meanwhile, the World Health Organization (WHO) has given Beijing a list of global experts to be part of the international investigation team to be sent to China to probe the origin of the coronavirus and is awaiting its approval.