by Pankaj Yadav
NEW DELHI, Oct. 3 (Xinhua) -- The death toll in India due to COVID-19 surpassed the 100,000-mark reaching 100,842 on Saturday, but the federal health ministry said the country maintained top global ranking with maximum coronavirus recoveries.
According to the health ministry's data, India also has one of the lowest mortality rates in the world.
"India continues to occupy the top global position as the country with the maximum number of recoveries. The total recoveries have crossed 5.4 million today. It accounts for 21 percent of the global recovered cases, while its share in the total cases stands at 18.6 percent," said a statement issued by the ministry.
The statement added that India has maintained its global position with one of the lowest case fatality rates (CFR) when compared to several other countries.
"While the global CFR stands at 2.97 percent as on date, the comparative figure for India is 1.56 percent," it added.
The statement also stated that the deaths per million of population in India is one of the lowest in the world. "While the global average is 130 deaths per million population, India is reporting 73 deaths per million population."
As many as 75,628 people recovered from the COVID-19 pandemic in the 24 hours preceding Saturday morning.
The overall recovery rate in the country is said to be 83.84 percent.
On Saturday India became the third country globally to report over 100,000 COVID-19 deaths, after the United States and Brazil.
As many as 1,069 people died due to the pandemic from Friday morning till Saturday morning.
The southwestern state of Maharashtra recorded the maximum of 37,450 deaths, followed by 9,652 in the southern state Tamil Nadu and 9,124 in the southern state of Karnataka.
With 79,476 new cases since Friday morning, the total COVID-19 tally in the country reached 6,473,544.
Still there are 944,996 active cases in the country, while 5,427,706 people have been successfully cured and discharged from hospitals.
According to the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), a total of 77,850,403 COVID-19 tests have been conducted, out of which 1,132,675 tests were conducted on Friday alone.
India continues to be among the worst COVID-19 affected countries in the world, as the scientists are busy developing a vaccine at the earliest. Earlier this week, the country's Health Minister Harsh Vardhan pinned hopes on development of the first vaccine by early next year.
The minister reportedly told the media that research on developing as many as three vaccines was being done expeditiously.
"There are at least three viable such vaccine candidates that are in the phase of clinical trials right now in the country. We're hopeful that within the first quarter of 2021 it will be available," he was quoted as saying. Enditem
