India's COVID-19 tally of cases galloped past 37 lakh on Wednesday with 78,357 new instances of the disease reported in a day, while the number of recoveries crossed 29 lakh pushing the recovery rate to 76.98 per cent, the Union health ministry data showed.
The death toll climbed to 66,333 with 1,045 more fatalities reported in 24 hours.
India has so far reported 37,69,523 cases of the viral disease, according to the data updated at 8 am.
The total number of COVID-19 recoveries in the country has surged to 29,01,908, while the fatality rate has further declined to 1.76 per cent.
There are 8,01,282, active cases in the country which comprises 21.26 per cent of the total caseload, the data stated.
India's COVID-19 tally had crossed the 20-lakh mark on August 7 and went past 30 lakh on August 23.
According to the Indian Council of Medical Research, a total of 4,43,37,201 samples have been tested up to September 1, of which 10,12,367 were tested on Tuesday.
Of the 1,045 fresh deaths, 320 are from Maharashtra, 135 from Karnataka, 96 from Tamil Nadu, 84 from Andhra Pradesh, 59 from Punjab, 56 from Uttar Pradesh, 55 from West Bengal, 39 from Bihar, 32 from Madhya Pradesh, 18 from Delhi, 17 from Haryana, 14 each from Gujarat and Jammu and Kashmir, 13 from Rajasthan and 12 from Puducherry.
Eleven fatalities each have been reported from Jharkhand, Odisha and Uttarakhand, 10 each from Chhattisgarh and Telangana, nine from Assam, five from Tripura, four from Kerala, two each from Himachal Pradesh, Goa and Meghalaya, while Chandigarh, Manipur, Ladakh and Sikkim have registered one fatality each.
Of the total 66,333 deaths reported so far, Maharashtra has the maximum at 24,903 followed by 7,418 in Tamil Nadu, 5,837 in Karnataka, 4,462 in Delhi, 4,053 in Andhra Pradesh, 3,542 in Uttar Pradesh, 3,283 in West Bengal, 3,034 in Gujarat, and 1,512 in Punjab.
Till now, 1,426 people have died of COVID-19 in Madhya Pradesh, 1,069 in Rajasthan, 846 in Telangana, 717 in Jammu and Kashmir, 706 in Haryana, 621 in Bihar, 503 in Odisha, 428 in Jharkhand, 315 in Assam, 298 in Kerala, 287 in Chhattisgarh and 280 in Uttarakhand.
Puducherry has registered 240 fatalities, Goa 194, Tripura 118, Chandigarh 57, Andaman and Nicobar Islands 46, Himachal Pradesh 40, Ladakh 35, Manipur 29, Meghalaya 12, Nagaland nine, Arunachal Pradesh seven, Sikkim four and Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu two.
The health ministry stressed that more than 70 per cent of the deaths were due to comorbidities.
"Our figures are being reconciled with the ICMR," the ministry said on its website, adding that state-wise distribution of figures is subject to further verification and reconciliation.
