India's Covid-19 Toll at 779, Cases Near 25,000-mark as Govt Says Daily Growth Rate Lowest at 6%

New Delhi: The death toll due to COVID-19 rose to 779 and the number of cases to 24,942 in the country on Saturday, registering an increase of 56 deaths and 1,490 cases since Friday evening, according to data from the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. The 56 deaths were the maximum reported in the country in a span of 24 hours, said the ministry.

Even as fresh cases were detected in Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and Delhi among other places, the government said the daily growth rate has dipped to 6% and a few states began relaxing some lockdown conditions by allowing more shops to open.

The number of active COVID-19 cases stood at 18,953, while 5,209 people have been cured and discharged, and one patient has migrated, said the ministry. "So far, around 20.88% people have recovered in the country," it added.

Of the 56 deaths reported since Friday evening, 18 were in Maharashtra, 15 in Gujarat, nine in Madhya Pradesh, three each in Delhi and West Bengal, two each in Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh, and one each in Punjab and Kerala.

The ministry said 24,942 people have tested positive while more than 5,200 have recovered -- giving a recovery rate of over 20%. It also said the rate of daily growth in new cases has fallen to 6%, which is the lowest since the country crossed 100 cases.

Of the total 779 COVID-19 deaths, Maharashtra accounts for the highest number of 301 fatalities, followed by Gujarat (127), Madhya Pradesh (92), Delhi (53), Andhra Pradesh (31) and Rajasthan (27).

The death toll reached 26 in Uttar Pradesh as well as in Telangana, 22 in Tamil Nadu, while Karnataka and West Bengal have reported 18 deaths each, the ministry said.

Punjab has registered 17 fatalities so far, Jammu and Kashmir five, Kerala four, while Jharkhand and Haryana have recorded three COVID-19 deaths each.

Bihar has reported two coronavirus deaths, while Meghalaya, Himachal Pradesh, Odisha and Assam have reported a fatality each, according to the ministry data.

However, a PTI tally of the figures reported by various states showed 24,836 COVID-19 cases in the country and 787 deaths due to the disease.

There has been a lag in the ministry figures compared to the number of deaths announced by the states, which officials attribute to procedural delays in assigning the cases to individual states.

According to the ministry data updated in the evening, the highest number of confirmed cases is from Maharashtra at 6,817, followed by Gujarat (2,815), Delhi (2,514), Rajasthan (2,034), Madhya Pradesh (1,952) and UP (1,778).

The number of COVID-19 cases has gone up to 1,755 in Tamil Nadu, 1,061 in Andhra Pradesh and 984 in Telangana. This number has risen to 571 in West Bengal, 489 in Karnataka, 454 in Jammu and Kashmir, 451 in Kerala, 298 in Punjab and 272 in Haryana.

Bihar has reported 228 cases, while Odisha has 94. Fifty-nine people have been infected in Jharkhand and 48 in Uttarakhand.

Himachal Pradesh has 40 cases, while Chhattisgarh and Assam have registered 36 infections each. Chandigarh has 28 cases, while there are 27 COVID-19 patients in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

Twenty coronavirus cases have been reported from Ladakh, 12 from Meghalaya, while Goa and Puducherry have registered seven COVID-19 cases each.

Manipur and Tripura have two coronavirus patients each, while Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh have reported a case each.

(With inputs from PTI)