COVID-19 fatality rate declines to 1.93%

New Delhi: Continuing the downward trend, India's COVID-19 case fatality rate on Sunday dropped to 1.93 per cent, which is one of the lowest globally.

"The USA crossed 50,000 deaths in 23 days, Brazil in 95 days and Mexico in 141 days. India took 156 days to reach this national figure," the Union health ministry underscored as the number of fatalities due to Coronavirus infection in the country reached 49,980 with 944 people succumbing to the disease in a span of 24 hours.

COVID-19 tally rose to 25,89,682 with a single-day spike of 63,490 infections, while the total number of recoveries rose to 18,62,258 pushing the recovery rate to 71.91 per cent on Sunday.

India has been reporting over 60,000 cases daily since August 7, barring August 11 when the country registered 53,601 new cases of the infection. There are 6,77,444 active cases of Coronavirus infection in the country presently which comprise 26.16 per cent of the total caseload in the country.

According to the ICMR, a cumulative total of 2,93,09,703 samples have been tested up to August 15 with 7,46,608 samples being tested on Saturday.

Improved and effective clinical treatment in hospitals, supervised home isolation, use of non-invasive oxygen support, and improved services of the ambulances for ferrying patients for prompt and timely treatment have been the focus of the Centre and state and UT governments, the ministry said.