The recovery rate is now at 86.78 per cent and active cases continue to be under 9 lakhs

The downward trend continued as India reported 55,342 new cases of COVID-19 in the past 24 hours. This is the lowest number of fresh cases since August 18, when the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare had released a figure of 55,079.

Releasing the latest data on Tuesday, the ministry said close to 78,000 people recovered from the infectious disease during the last 24 hours.

The ministry in a statement said that India has been seeing a decline in the number of new cases for the five weeks. The weekly average of the daily new cases fell from 92,830 cases in the second week of September to 70,114 in the second week of October.

The ministry said India also reported 706 deaths in the past 24 hours, which is relatively lower than the usual.

“The new low in daily cases is the result of collaborative action by States/UTs under the Centre's strategy of comprehensive and aggressive testing, prompt tracking and surveillance, hospitalization and adherence to the Standard Treatment Protocol which has ensured a standardised quality of medical care across the public and private hospitals and for home isolation,” the Ministry said in a statement.

Of the newly reported cases, 76 per cent of cases come from the 10 states and union territories of Karnataka, Maharashtra, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan.

Karnataka, the past 24 hours surpassed Maharashtra in the tally of new reported cases, though the death rate in Maharashtra remains to be the highest in the country. Karnataka reported 7,606 cases and 70 deaths while Maharashtra reported 7,089 cases and 165 deaths.

Kerala also reported 5,930 new cases and 22 new deaths. Tamil Nadu reported 4,879 new cases and 62 new deaths. West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh each reported over 3,000 cases and Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan each reported over 2,000 cases each.

The recovery rate, on the other hand, has further improved to 86.78 per cent. With new recoveries surpassing new reported cases, India continues to keep its active cases below 9 lakhs. The active cases stand at 8,38,729.

India reported 77,760 recoveries in the past 24 hours. The highest number of new recoveries were reported from Maharashtra, Karnataka, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.

While Maharashtra reported 15,656 recoveries, Karnataka reported 12,030 recoveries in the past 24 hours. Similarly, Kerala also reported 7,836 new recoveries. Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu reported 5,504 and 5,165 recoveries respectively in the past 24 hours.

India has so far reported 71,75,880 cases out of which 62,27,295 patients have recovered while 1,09,856 people have lost their lives.