India's COVID-19 tally rises to 2,088,611, deaths surge to 42,518

NEW DELHI: Total COVID-19 tally in India rose to 2,088,611 even as the number of deaths swelled to 42,518, said the latest data issued by the federal health ministry on Saturday.

An increase of 61,537 new cases and 933 new deaths were recorded during the past 24 hours, the data showed.

Saturday is the ninth consecutive day when a single-day spike of over 50,000 fresh cases has been recorded, and the second consecutive day when over 60,000 fresh cases are recorded in a single day.

There are a total of 619,088 active COVID-19 patients admitted in different hospitals across the country, as 1,427,005 people have been successfully cured and discharged from hospitals, according to the ministry's data.

The recent surge in the fresh COVID-19 cases is mainly attributed to ramping up of the samples testing in the country. Till Friday a total of 23,387,171 COVID-19 samples were tested, out of which 598,778 samples were tested on Friday alone, tweeted the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).