India has reported over seven lakh COVID-19 cases so far (Representational)
India recorded 425 deaths coronavirus-linked deaths in the previous 24 hours, Health Ministry data showed Monday morning. Only one country recorded more - Brazil with 602.
The United States, which is the country worst affected by the COVID-19 pandemic with nearly 29 lakh infections, was third on that list with 271 deaths.
Overall India has reported 19,693 COVID-19-related deaths, compared to 64,867 by Brazil and 1,29,947 by the United States.
India's fatality rate - number of deaths as a percentage of total cases - was 2.8 per cent this morning. This compares well to 3 per cent a week ago and 3.2 per cent two weeks ago.
By comparison the US has a fatality rate of 4.5 per cent and Brazil 4.1 per cent. The global fatality rate stands at 4.7 per cent.
The US, Brazil and India are the three countries most badly hit by the spread of the novel coronavirus.
India's low fatality rate aside, there has been a worrying spike in new cases over the past weeks, coinciding with the government's decision to remove lockdown restrictions in a phased manner.
Late Monday evening India crossed the seven lakh-mark in coronavirus cases, with 3,827 new cases taking the total number of cases in the country to 7,01,240.
It took the country just four days to move from six lakh cases to seven, with over 20,000 infections reported every day since July 3 and more than 24,000 detected in each of the past two days.
India's first case was reported by Kerala in January - a student returning from China's Wuhan, the original epicentre of a pandemic that has infected over 1.14 crore people worldwide.
Within India, Maharashtra remains the worst-affected state with over two lakh cases, including 8,822 deaths. Tamil Nadu is second with 1.11 lakh cases, including 1,510 deaths, and national capital Delhi - the worst-affected metro city - is third with more than 1.01 lakh COVID-19 cases, including 3,115 deaths.
Amid the spike in cases the ICMR (Indian Council for Medical Research) is looking to fast-track Phase I, II human clinical trials for COVAXIN - India's first coronavirus vaccine candidate.
Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech's new drug is expected to go into Phase I trials next week, with Phase II to follow pending results. More than 1,100 people will be selected for Phase I, II trials, Bharat Biotech said in its application for testing on humans.