With a spike of 36,370 fresh COVID-19 infections in the last 24 hours, India reported the lowest number of new cases in the country since mid-July, taking its tally to 79.46 lakh.

July 18 was the last time when India reported less than 36,000 cases.India recorded an average of 55,000 daily COVID cases last week, against the weekly average of 90,000 during the peak in September.According to the Health Ministry data, at least 488 people died due to COVID-19 in the last 24 hours, taking the total death toll to 1,19,502.The COVID fatality rate has remained about 1.5 per cent since September. The Health Ministry now aims to achieve a rate of less than 1 per cent.Among the 14 states and Union Territories showing less-than 1 per cent COVID fatality rate is Kerala – which has surpassed Maharashtra with highest daily cases.Kerala added 4,287 fresh COVID cases, the state government has said it is experiencing a ‘purposely delayed peak’ and that its medical health infrastructure was prepared to handle about 15,000 cases a day. At 6,25,857, total active coronavirus cases in India now account for about 8 per cent of the totalThe recovery rate has surged past the 90 per cent mark with over 72 lakh discharged patients. India has been testing an average of 8-9 lakh people every day for the past month.India remains the second most affected country by the pandemic as infections witness a resurgence in the US with at least 87 lakh cases and 2.25 lakh deaths.

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