India reports more than 62,000 new coronavirus cases

NEW DELHI, India

India’s coronavirus count crossed the 7.4 million marks Saturday after it registered 62,212 new cases, according to official statistics.   

At least 837 new fatalities were also reported, bringing the death toll to 112,998. The fatality rate of 1.52% Friday was the lowest since March 22, the Union Health Ministry said.

More than 6.5 million patients have recovered from the virus, with 70,816 in the last 24 hours, pushing the recovery rate to 87.78%.

The number of active cases stands at 795,087 in India.

“The next two and half months are going to be very crucial for us in our fight against corona because of the winter season and the festival season. It becomes the responsibility of every citizen to not let our guard down and follow COVID appropriate behavior to curb the spread of the infection,” said Indian Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan at a COVID-appropriate behavior meeting Friday, with the heads of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research.

Despite the government’s efforts, five key states have shown infection spikes in recent days.

The Health Ministry has rushed high-level central teams to Kerala, Karnataka, Rajasthan, Chhatisgarh and West Bengal to help contain the virus. 

With 7 million cases, India is ranked second globally only to the US in number of infections.

Health experts believe it may surpass the US, the worst-affected country in the severity of the pandemic.