New Delhi, July 4 () With 22,771 people testing positive for the novel coronavirus in a day, the highest so far, India's COVID-19 tally climbed to 6,48,315 on Saturday, while the death toll rose to 18,655 with 442 new fatalities, according to the Union Health Ministry's data.
With a steady rise, the number of recoveries stands at 3,94,226 with 14,335 COVID-19 patients having been cured in the last 24 hours, according to the updated data at 8 am.
The number of recovered patients exceeded the active cases by 1,58,793 as of Saturday.
There are 2,35,433 active cases of COVID-19 presently in the country, the data showed.
"The recovery rate has further increased to 60.81 per cent," the Union Health Ministry said.
The total number of confirmed cases also include foreigners.
According to the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), a cumulative total of 95,40,132 samples have been tested up to July 3 with 2,42,383 samples being tested on Friday.
"The efforts to expand the testing labs network in the country have led to their numbers increasing every day. There are as many as 1,087 labs in the country -- 780 labs in the government sector and 307 private labs.
"Facilitation of widespread testing by States/UTs has spurred the number of samples tested every day," the health ministry said.
This is the second consecutive day when coronavirus cases have increased by more than 20,000. There has been a surge of 4,57,780 COVID-19 cases from June 1 till date.
Of the 442 deaths reported in the last 24 hours, 198 are from Maharashtra, 64 from Tamil Nadu, 59 from Delhi, 21 from Karnataka, 18 each from Gujarat and West Bengal, 14 from Uttar Pradesh, 10 from Rajasthan, eight each from Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, five from Punjab, four each from Haryana, Madhya Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir, three from Bihar, and two each from Assam and Odisha.
Of the total 18,655 deaths reported so far, Maharashtra accounted for the highest 8,376 fatalities, followed by Delhi with 2,923 deaths, Gujarat with 1,904, Tamil Nadu with 1,385, Uttar Pradesh with 749, West Bengal with 717, Madhya Pradesh with 593, Rajasthan with 440 and Karnataka with 293.
The COVID-19 death toll reached 283 in Telangana, 255 in Haryana, 206 in Andhra Pradesh, 157 in Punjab, 119 in Jammu and Kashmir, 80 in Bihar, 42 in Uttarakhand, 29 in Odisha and 25 in Kerala.
Jharkhand has registered 15 deaths, Chhattisgarh and Assam 14 each, Puducherry 12, Himachal Pradesh 10, Chandigarh six, Goa four and Meghalaya, Tripura, Ladakh and Arunachal Pradesh have reported one fatality each, according to the Health Ministry.
More than 70 per cent deaths took place due to comorbidities, it said.
Maharashtra has reported the highest number of cases at 1,92,990, followed by Tamil Nadu at 1,02,721, Delhi at 94,695, Gujarat at 34,600, Uttar Pradesh at 25,797, West Bengal at 20,488 and Telangana at 20,462, according to the ministry data.
The number of COVID-19 cases has gone up to 19,710 in Karnataka, 19,052 in Rajasthan, 16,934 in Andhra Pradesh, 16,003 in Haryana and 14,297 in Madhya Pradesh.
It has risen to 10,954 in Bihar, 9,673 in Assam, 8,106 in Odisha and 8,019 in Jammu and Kashmir. Punjab has reported 5,937 novel coronavirus infections so far, while Kerala has 4,964 cases.
A total of 3,065 people have been infected by the virus in Chhattisgarh, 3,048 in Uttarakhand, 2,695 in Jharkhand, 1,525 in Tripura, 1,482 in Goa, 1,316 in Manipur, 1,033 in Himachal Pradesh and 1,001 in Ladakh.
Puducherry has recorded 802 COVID-19 cases, Nagaland 539, Chandigarh 457 and Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu together have reported 257 cases.
Arunachal Pradesh 252, Mizoram has 162 cases, Andaman and Nicobar Islands has 116, Sikkim has registered 102 infections so far, while Meghalaya has recorded 62 cases.
"Our figures are being reconciled with the ICMR," the ministry said, adding that 4,999 cases are being reassigned to states.
State-wise distribution is subject to further verification and reconciliation, it added. PLB SMN SMN