India on Saturday crossed the 34 lakh-mark with a spike of 76,472 fresh Coronavirus cases in the last 24 hours, taking the total tally to 34,63,973, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said.

This is slightly lower than its last surge of over 77,000 cases on Friday, a global record since the outbreak in China’s Wuhan.

A total 1,021 people succumbed to the deadly infection in the same period taking the death toll to 62,550.

Of the total cases, 7,52,424 are active while 26,48,999 people have been cured of the infection.

With 65,050 people having recovered in the last 24 hours, the recovery rate currently stands at 76.47 per cent.

India though the third worst-hit at present, after the US and Brazil, has been reporting the highest number of daily Coronavirus cases in the world for the last three weeks. No other country has reported such continued surge since the pandemic surfaced in December 2019.

Maharashtra remains the hardest-hit state, accounting for 7,47,995 cases and 23,775 deaths.

Andhra Pradesh, one of the worst-hit states, has recorded 96,191 active cases. The state has recorded 3,714 deaths so far.

Karnataka has a total of 86,366 active cases with 5,368 people succumbing to the Coronavirus pandemic.

The national capital has 13,550 active Coronavirus cases and reported 4,389 deaths so far of which 20 in past one day.

Meanwhile, according to the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), as many as 9,28,761 samples were tested on Friday, taking the total to 4,04,06,609 samples being tested till August 28.

The Union Health Ministry on Thursday made a detailed presentation on the current status of the novel Coronavirus wherein it was observed that out of the total deaths in the country in the last two weeks, 89 per cent of the fatalities were reported from nine states and one Union Territory (UT).

The presentation was made by the Union Health Secretary during the meeting held by the Cabinet Secretary with the Chief Secretaries and Health Secretaries of nine states — Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Telangana, Gujarat, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Andhra Pradesh, and the UT Jammu and Kashmir.

Globally, the overall number of Coronavirus cases has topped 24.6 million, while the deaths have increased to over 835,000, according to the Johns Hopkins University.

As of Saturday morning, the total number of cases stood at 24,646,610 and the fatalities rose to 835,730, the University’s Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) revealed in its latest update.

The US accounts for the world’s highest number of cases and deaths at 59,13,564 and 181,767 respectively, according to the CSSE.

Brazil comes in the second place with 38,04,803 infections and 119,504 deaths.