The downward trend in India's coronavirus cases continues as 55,342 new COVID-19 cases were recorded in the last 24 hours taking the country's Covid tally past 71.75 lakh, shows data shared by the Health Ministry this morning. This is the first time since August 18 (55,079) that India has reported around 55,000 cases in a day, and second day when the total new infections were under 70,000 since the September surge of around 90,000 cases a day. With 77,760 new recoveries, active cases have further come down to 8.38 lakh. The total number of fatalities associated with the viral infection shot to 1,09,856 with 706 people succumbing to COVID-19 in the last 24 hours.