India records over 96,000 fresh COVID cases in 24 hrs

Vendors, wearing facemasks as a preventive measure against the COVID-19, wait for customers to rent their toy bikes for rides along the Rajpath street near India Gate in New Delhi on 16 September 2020AFP

With a massive spike of 96,424 new cases and 1,172 deaths in the last 24 hours, India's COVID-19 tally on Friday crossed the 5.2 million mark.

Out of the total 52,14,677 cases, 10,17,754 are active while 41,12,551 have recovered from the deadly virus and 84,372 succumbed to the disease, the data released by the health and family welfare ministry showed.

Maharashtra remains the worst hit state followed by Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and Delhi.

According to the data released by the ministry, the fatality rate has reached to 1.63 per cent while the recovery rate is at 78.64 per cent.

As per the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), 6,15,72,343 samples were tested up to 17 September of which 10,06,615 were tested in the past 24 hours.