With a spike of 78,761 new cases, India's COVID-19 tally crosses 35-lakh mark

India's COVID-19 tally zoomed past 35 lakh, just a week after it crossed the 30-lakh mark, with a record single-day spike of 78,761 cases, while recoveries surged to 27,13,933 on Sunday, according to the Union Health Ministry data. The total coronavirus cases rose to 35,42,733, while the death toll climbed to 63,498 with 948 people succumbing to the disease in a span of 24 hours, the data updated at 8 am showed.

The recovery rate has increased to 76.61 per cent while the COVID-19 case fatality rate has further declined to 1.79 per cent. There are 7,65,302 active cases of coronavirus infection in the country which comprises 21.60 per cent of the total caseload, the data stated. India's COVID-19 cases rose from 20 lakh to 30 lakh in 16 days, 10 lakh to 20 lakh in 21 days while it had taken 59 days for the cases to cross the 10 lakh-mark.

It took 110 days for COVID-19 cases in the country to reach one lakh while just 59 days more to go past the 10-lakh post. India's COVID-19 tally had crossed the 20-lakh mark on August 7 and went past 30 lakh on August 23. According to the ICMR, a cumulative total of 4,14,61,636 samples have been tested up to August 29 with 10,55,027 samples being tested on Saturday.