India's COVID-19 tally climbed to 78.14 lakh with 53,370 fresh cases in a day, while 70,16,046 people have so far recuperated pushing the national recovery rate to 89.78 per cent on Saturday, the Union health ministry said.
The total number of coronavirus cases mounted to 78,14,682 and the deaths to 1,17,956, with the novel coronavirus virus claiming 650 lives in a span of 24 hours in the country, the ministry data updated at 8 am on Saturday showed.
The COVID-19 case fatality rate has further declined to 1.51 per cent.
There are 6,80,680 active cases of coronavirus infection in the country which comprises 8.71 per cent of the total caseload, the ministry data said.
According to ICMR, a cumulative total of 10,13,82,564 samples have been tested up to October 23, with 12,69,479 samples tested on Friday.
Drugmakers AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson both said on Friday that they are set to resume their paused COVID-19 vaccine trials in the United States -- providing a glimmer of hope as the number of cases skyrocket across the country.
COVID-19 has now killed more than 223,000 Americans, and the health crisis is a top issue in the presidential election pitting incumbent Donald Trump against Joe Biden.
