New Delhi, December 29: India on Tuesday logged 16,432 fresh COVID-19 infections taking the total number of cases to 1,02,24,303. The country now has 2,68,581 active coronavirus cases while as many as 98,07,569 patients have been cured and discharged from various hospitals, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said. India has reported 24,900 recoveries in the past 24 hours. With 252 new fatalities, the death toll due to coronavirus has mounted to 1,48,153. The recovery rate stands at 95.83 percent while the fatality rate is 1.45 as percent. India Reports New Strain of Mutant Virus, 6 UK Returnees Found Positive For New UK Variant Genome.

The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) on Tuesday informed that a total of 16,98,01,749 samples have been tested for COVID-19 in India till now. Of these, 9,83,695 samples were tested on Monday alone. Maharashtra continues to be the worst-hit state to the date with 19,22,048 cases. The state recorded 2,498 new COVID-19 cases on Monday while the death toll rose to 49,305 as 50 more people lost their lives. The Health Ministry informed that over 70 per cent of the daily new cases are being reported by 10 states and union territory including Kerala, Maharashtra, West Bengal, Chhattisgarh, Karnataka, Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan and Gujarat.

Globally, the overall number of coronavirus cases has topped 81.2 million, while the deaths have surged to more than 1.77 million, according to the Johns Hopkins University. The  current global caseload and death toll stood at 81,249,028 and 1,772,912, respectively. The US is the worst-hit country with the world's highest number of cases and deaths at 19,299,960 and 334,830, respectively, according to the CSSE.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Dec 29, 2020 10:10 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).