COVID-19: India records highest single-day Covid deaths in the world

India's COVID-19 death toll on Wednesday climbed to 2,83,248 with a record 4,529 fresh fatalities, the highest toll in a single day for any country in the world since the pandemic began.

With a total of 2,67,334 fresh infections, India's total tally of cases climbed to 2,54,96,330, the Union Health Ministry said.

The active cases dipped to 32,26,719 comprising 12.66 per cent of the total infections, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate has improved to 86.23 per cent, the data showed.

The number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 2,19,86,363 while the case fatality rate has increased to 1.11 per cent, the data stated.

India crossed the grim milestone of 20 million on May 4.

According to the ICMR, 32,03,01,177 samples have been tested up to May 18 with 20,08,296 samples being tested on Tuesday.

The 4,529 new fatalities include 1,291 from Maharashtra, 525 from Karnataka, 364 from Tamil Nadu, 265 from Delhi, 255 from Uttar Pradesh, 231 from Punjab, 153 from Chhattisgarh, 146 from Rajasthan, 145 from West Bengal, 124 from Haryana and 111 from Bihar.

A total of 2, 83,248 deaths have been reported so far in the country including 83,777 from Maharashtra, 22,838 from Karnataka, 22,111 from Delhi, 18,369 from Tamil Nadu, 18,072 from Uttar Pradesh, 13,576 from West Bengal, 12,317 from Punjab and 12,036 from Chhattisgarh.

The health ministry stressed that more than 70 per cent of the deaths occurred due to comorbidities.

"Our figures are being reconciled with the Indian Council of Medical Research," the ministry said on its website, adding that state-wise distribution of figures is subject to further verification and reconciliation.

(With inputs from agencies)