Covid-19 in India: total cases close to 12 lakh, death toll nearly 30,000

India registered a single-day spike of 37,724 Covid-19 cases and 648 deaths pushing the country's virus caseload to 11,92,915 and the death toll to 28,732 today.

There are 4,11,133 active cases of coronavirus infections currently in the country, while 7,53,049 people have recovered till now, reports our New Delhi correspondent quoting the health ministry data.

India's Covid-19 fatality rate has dropped significantly to 2.43 percent at present from 3.36 percent on June 17 due to effective clinical management, the government said on yesterday.

A total of thirty Indian states and federally-ruled territories have a positivity rate lower than that of the national average which stands at 8.07 percent, Rajesh Bhushan, officer on special duty in the health ministry, told the media in New Delhi.

"Nineteen states and union territories are performing more than 140 tests per day per million population. Just doing tests is not enough, they have to be done at a level of 140 tests per day per million so that the rate of positivity reduces and comes down to 10 percent," he said.

Bhushan said that the ultimate aim was to maintain this level of testing and bring positivity lower to five percent eventually or even lower than that.

"There are several countries where the deaths per million is 21 times or 33 times higher than in India. The global average stands at 77 deaths per million population," he said.