India's recovery rate now at 63.24%: Health Ministry

New Delhi: Even though India on Wednesday recorded a highest-ever single-day spike of 29,428 fresh cases taking the caseload tally to 9,36,181, the Health ministry has pinned hope on increasing recovery rate as the patients are getting cured at the rate of 63.24 per cent.

With 20,572 new recoveries in the last 24 hours, a total of 5,92,032 patients have recovered so far, while the death toll mounted to 24,309 after 582 new fatalities reported in a single day.

Notably, it's the fourth consecutive day that COVID-19 cases have increased by more than 28,000.

According to the Health ministry, the surge in recovered cases is driven by aggressive testing, timely diagnosis and effective management of the patients either through supervised home isolation or under active medical attention in the hospitals.

"The actual caseload of COVID-19 is only 3,19,840 active cases and all the cases are under medical supervision," the ministry said, adding that the gap between recovered and active cases is 2,72,191 and the number of recovered cases outweighs the active cases by a factor of 1.85.

Meanwhile, the ICMR has tested a total of 1,24,12,664 samples as it has achieved another milestone of testing above 3 lakh swab samples in a day. The apex research institute has tested 3,20,161 samples in the last 24 hours. The testing capacity of the ICMR has increased from 2 lakh to 3 lakh in 22 days and at present, there are 1,223 functional labs in the country.

Of the 582 deaths reported in the last 24 hours, 213 are from Maharashtra, 85 from Karnataka, 67 from Tamil Nadu, 43 from Andhra Pradesh, 35 from Delhi, 28 from Uttar Pradesh, 24 from West Bengal, 14 deaths each from Bihar and Gujarat, 10 deaths each from Madhya Pradesh and Telangana, etc.

Of the total 24,309 fatalities, Maharashtra accounted for the highest 10,695 fatalities followed by Delhi with 3,446 deaths, Gujarat 2,069, Tamil Nadu 2,099, etc.

Maharashtra has reported the highest number of cases at 2,67,665 followed by Tamil Nadu at 1,47,324, Delhi at 1,15,346, Karnataka at 44,077, Gujarat at 43,637, Uttar Pradesh at 39,724 and Telangana at 37,745.