Coronavirus India: 44,306 patients cured in a day, highest-ever testing

India's COVID-19 tally reached 18,55,475 today, with 52,050 cases being reported in a day. Recoveries rose to 12,30,509, including 44,306 in past 24 hours, according to the Union Health Ministry data. There are 5,86,298 active cases of coronavirus infection in the country presently while the recovery rate among COVID-19 patients has gone up to 65.76%.

This is the sixth consecutive day that COVID-19 cases have increased by more than 50,000.

803 patients succumbed to coronavirus infection in past 24 hours, taking the overall death toll to 38,938.

According to the ICMR, a cumulative total of 2,08,64,206 samples have been tested till August 3 with 6,61,715 samples being tested on Monday.

The gap between the recoveries and the active cases has seen a steady rise. On 10th June 2020, for the first time, the total number of recovered patients exceeded the active cases with a difference of 1,573. This has now increased to 6,44,211.

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Monday said all shops in Mumbai can remain open on all days of the week, on both sides of the road from 5 August.

The World Health Organization (WHO) will hold a meeting with an Indian delegation later this week to analyse the unusually high rate of exposure to the novel coronavirus found in the sero-surveillance studies conducted in Delhi and Mumbai.

India's apex drug regulatory body has granted approval to Serum Institute of India (SII) to conduct phase II and III human trial for the COVID-19 vaccine developed by the University of Oxford. The permission was given on Sunday after an evaluation based on the recommendations of the Subject Expert Committee on COVID-19, a health ministry official told.