India COVID-19 Cases: 62,212 fresh infections, 837 deaths reported in a day as India's Covid cases cross 74 lakh

Coronavirus Cases in India: Daily cases has fallen from a peak of almost 100,000 in mid-September.

New Delhi: India has scaled an "unprecedented" peak as active coronavirus cases dropped below the 8-lakh mark for the first time in 1.5 months, the Health Ministry said this morning when the country's Covid tally surged to 74.3 lakh after 62,212 new cases of COVID-19 were recorded in the last 24 hours. The total number of active cases dropped to 7.95 lakh today as 70,816 patients fought off COVID-19 since yesterday. According to government data, the active caseload is now only 10.70 per cent of the tally. "This significant achievement is the outcome of central government-led targetted strategies leading to high number of recoveries and steadily falling number of fatalities," the Health Ministry has said.

Here are top 10 developments on this big story:

Though India continues to report the highest number of new COVID-19 daily infections in the world, the daily surge has come down from 80,000-90,000 fresh daily cases in mid-September to about 70,000 in the past week.
About 65.2 lakh patients have so far recovered from COVID-19 and 1,12,998 died of it; some 837 deaths were registered in the last 24 hours. The country's average recovery rate is 87.8 per cent and death rate is 1.5 per cent.
According to government data, 79 per cent new cases, 78 per cent recoveries and 82 per cent deaths were concentrated in some states and union territories.
The states of Kerala, Karnataka, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and West Bengal, which have been reporting a consistent rise in the number of new COVID-19 cases, have been sent high-level teams from the centre to contain the spread of the contagion. They have a high share of active, or new, cases in their tally.
Maharashtra, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh remain the worst-hit in terms of total numbers, with all these states, barring UP, also recording the highest number of new cases in the last 24 hours.
The average positivity rate stood at 6 per cent as almost 10 lakh tests were conducted in the last 24 hours. A total of 9.3 crore tests have been done in the country since the pandemic's outbreak in the beginning of this year.
Globally, the coronavirus pandemic has cost the lives of 11 lakh people. At least 1,100,056 fatalities, out of 38,997,267 cases, have been reported.
Almost one in five deaths was in the United States, the hardest-hit country which has 2.2 lakh deaths from 80 lakh infections, followed by Brazil with 1.5 lakh deaths from 52 lakh cases, India with 1.1 lakh deaths from 74.3 lakh cases.
India remains the second worst affected country in the world behind the Unites States - which is seeing a fresh spike in cases ahead of the winter months. However, India has one of the "lowest deaths per million population globally", the Health Ministry has said.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has called for continued vigilance and a high state of preparedness against coronavirus as experts have warned of a possible rise in infections in the winter months. Mr Modi has said the facility to get tested regularly and speedily at a low cost must be available to all at the earliest.