India crosses 7.2 million Covid-19 case mark with 63,509 new infections as cases rise marginally from a day ago

NEW DELHI: India’s Covid-19 tally on Wednesday crossed the 7.2 million case mark, as the country recorded 63,509 new infections in the last 24 hours, as per the Union health ministry’s dashboard.

This latest rise in cases is a marginal increase from Tuesday’s spike of 55,342 as the country continues to report a relatively lesser number of infections per day.

However, despite the latest rise, the number of active cases in the country are still below the nine lakh mark, at 826,876 or 11.69% of the total number of cases. The number of discharged cases, meanwhile, rose to 6,301,927 with 74,632 new recoveries in the last 24 hours, more than the number of new cases.

The current death toll stands at 110,856 with 730 new fatalities in this period. Recoveries and deaths contribute 86.78% and 1.53% of the total number of cases respectively.

These latest figures come a day before the country starts reopening further, as cinema halls, schools, entertainment parks and swimming pools are set to open across the country with strict Covid-19 protocols in place. On September 30, in its guidelines for the fifth and current phase of the nationwide unlock, the Union home ministry had given permission for these places to reopen from October 15.

India continues to be the second worst-hit country, after the United States and is ahead of Brazil. However, it also has the highest number of recovered cases in the world, contributing to over 20% of global recoveries, a fact that the health ministry has frequently highlighted in its press briefings over the last few days.