Featured image: A health worker collects a sample from an MCD employee for COVID-19 test, at Municipal Corporation of Delhi Civic Center, in New Delhi, Friday, Sept. 18, 2020. Photo: PTI/Manvender Vashist

India added 93,337 new cases of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) on Saturday, taking the country’s tally of confirmed cases to 53,08,014. The death toll is 85,619. According to the health ministry, 10,13,964 cases are still active, while 42,08,431 people have been cured or discharged or have migrated. The confirmed cases include foreigners.

The country’s COVID-19 tally had crossed the 20-lakh mark on August 7, the 30-lakh mark on August 23, 40 lakh on September 5, and it went past 50 lakh on September 16.

India is now the second worst-hit nation by the pandemic after the US, having surpassed Brazil. However, India has been reporting more daily cases than the United States since mid-August.

Deaths, which have been relatively low so far, are showing an uptick, and the country has recorded more than 1,000 deaths every day for the last two weeks. According to Johns Hopkins University, which has been compiling COVID-19 data from all over the world, India’s death toll is the third-worst.

Independent trackers are reporting a slightly higher death tally than the health ministry. According to Worldometer, India has 5,308,014 confirmed cases and that 85,625 people have died because of COVID-19.

Across the world, there have now been over 30 million confirmed cases of COVID-19. In total, 30,406,197 confirmed cases have been reported as of Saturday morning.

According to Johns Hopkins University, the global death toll due to COVID-19 stands at 950,520. Another 20,683,110 people have recovered from the disease.

In many countries, official data includes only deaths reported in hospitals, not those in homes or nursing homes.

The US has recorded 6,723,933 confirmed cases of COVID-19, the respiratory illness caused by the novel coronavirus. India is in second place with 5,214,677 cases, followed by Brazil (4,495,183), Russia (1,086,955) and Colombia (750,471).

The US has also recorded the highest death toll, with 198,570 fatalities so far. The death toll has also been high in Brazil (135,793), India (84,372), Mexico (72,803), the UK (41,821), Italy (35,668), France (31,257), and Peru (31,146).

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