With spike of 61,871 cases, India's COVID-19 tally reaches 74,94,552

New Delhi [India], October 18 (ANI): With a spike of 61,871 new COVID-19 cases and 1,033 deaths in last 24 hours, India's COVID-19 count reached 74,94,552 on Sunday, according to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW).
As per the MoHFW, the COVID-19 count includes 7,83,311 active cases and 65,97,210 cured/discharged/migrated cases. With 1,033 deaths in the last 24 hours, the total death count due to the disease has reached 1,14,031.
With 1,85,750 total active cases, Maharashtra continues to be the worst affected state by COVID-19 in the country. While 13,58,606 patients have recovered from the disease in the state, 41,965 have died so far.
Among other severely affected states, Karnataka has 1,10,666 active cases, while 6,37,481 people have recovered, 10,427 have succumbed to the coronavirus.
Delhi has 22,884 total active cases, 2,98,853 recovered and 5,981 deaths reported so far.
Meanwhile, according to the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), a total of 9,42,24,190 samples have been tested in the country for COVID-19 till Saturday. This includes 9,70,173 samples tested on October 17.
"India has exponentially scaled up its testing capacity from one in January to more than 9.32 crore at present. The very high testing has resulted in the continuous falling positivity rate. It has now fallen below 8%," the Health Ministry stated.
"Very comprehensive testing has thus worked as a highly effective tool to curb the spread of COVID-19 infection. It also leads to early identification, prompt isolation and effective treatment of COVID-19 cases, and eventual low Fatality Rate," MoHFW added. (ANI)