India's total of those cured of the disease also crossed three million today (File)
India, one of the worst coronavirus-hit countries in the world, has crossed 4 million COVID-19 cases. The country, which reported 83,341 cases on Friday, now has 40,06,162 total cases, including 68,472 deaths.
India is third on the list of nations with the greatest number of coronavirus cases, behind the United States and Brazil. Over the last few days, it has been reporting most COVID-19 cases in the world. The daily death figure in India is also touching worrying levels - on Friday, India reported over a thousand deaths.
Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh are the five states which reported the highest number of cases on Friday. These five states account for over 62 per cent of the active cases, according to the Health Ministry.
Among these five states, Maharashtra has recorded 6.8 per cent decrease in the number of active cases over a period of three weeks, it said this morning.
The Health Ministry, however, said India's Case Fatality Rate is lower than the global average and is constantly declining. It also said only 0.5 per cent of COVID-19 patients are on ventilators, two per cent patients are in ICUs and less than 3.5 per cent are on oxygen support.
India's total of those cured of the disease also crossed three million today.
"With the recovery of 66,659 in the last 24 hours, India has continued its trajectory of posting more than 60,000 recoveries for the eighth consecutive day. The recovery rate amongst the COVID-19 patients is 77.15 per cent demonstrating that the number of patients recovering is on a steady rise over the past several months," a health ministry statement read.
The government said the higher number of recoveries ensured the actual caseload - cases which are under active medical care - has reduced and currently comprises only 21.11 per cent of the total count.
The Central government, which is the highest executive authority in matters linked to the pandemic, is trying to enhance testing to prevent growth of the virus in the population. It said more than 11.70 lakh samples were tested for two successive days (Wednesday and Thursday).