October sees nearly 30% decline in cases

New Delhi: India's COVID-19 caseload rose to 81.84 lakh with October registering nearly 30 per cent decline in both new deaths and cases as compared to September, while total recoveries surged to 74.91 lakh, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Sunday.

The total Coronavirus cases mounted to 81,84,082 with 46,963 new infections being reported in a day, while the death toll climbed to 1,22,111 with 470 new fatalities, the data updated at 8 am showed.

New infections due to COVID-19 have started to decline steadily since the first week of October.

A total of 18,71,498 cases were reported in October, a decrease from last month's 26,21,418, accounting for about 22.87 per cent of the total instances of the viral infection reported in the country so far.

The past month also saw 23,433 lives lost due to the disease, which is around 19.19 per cent of the total 1,22,111 deaths recorded so far.

A total of 74,91,513 people have recuperated from COVID-19 so far taking the national recovery rate to 91.54 per cent while the case fatality rate was recorded at 1.49 per cent.

The number of active cases of COVID-19 remained below 6 lakh for the third consecutive day.There are 5,70,458 active cases of Coronavirus infection in the country as on date which comprises 6.97 per cent of the total caseload, the data stated.

The trajectory of the active caseload across different states and UTs has been diverse demonstrating their focused efforts and gradual progress in their fight against COVID-19, the ministry said, noting Karnataka has reported a steep decline in the active cases in a span of 24 hours.

"With the consistent decline in the active cases, the cases per million in India are among lowest in the world. India's average cases per million stand at 5,930," it highlighted.

Seventeen states and UTs have COVID-19 cases per million lower than the national average.

India's COVID-19 tally had crossed the 20-lakh mark on August 7, 30 lakh on August 23 and 40 lakh on September 5. It went past 50 lakh on September 16, 60 lakh on September 28,70 lakh on October 11 and crossed 80 lakh on October 29.

According to the ICMR, a cumulative total of 10,98,87,303 samples have been tested up to October 31 with 10,91,239 samples being tested on Saturday.