Confirmed cases of COVID-19 in India officially crossed the 15 lakh-mark on July 29, according to the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. According to the data last updated on the Ministry’s website at 8.00 am on July 29, the total known cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, reached 15,31,669. The death toll in the country due to the pandemic reached 34,193.
While 9,88,029 patients had recovered, 5,09,447 cases were still categorised as ‘active’. India had reported its first case of COVID-19 on January 30.
India is the third country to register 15 lakh or more COVID-19 cases, according to the Reuters tracker.
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Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Delhi, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka have reported the highest number of cases so far.
The recovery rate is gradually improving and now stands at around 64 percent.
While news reports earlier indicated that India had crossed the 15 lakh-mark on the evening of July 28 itself, the figure had not been corroborated with data from the Union Health Ministry.
Globally, there have been over 1.6 crore confirmed cases of COVID-19. Of these, at least 6.5 lakh people have died so far. The United States, Brazil, India, Russia and South Africa are the other most-affected countries.
India has been under a nationwide lockdown since March 25. This phase of lockdown, termed ‘Unlock 2.0’, will remain in place till July 31. The Centre is expected to issue guidelines for 'Unlock 3.0' soon.
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