India reported its biggest one-day rise in Covid-19 cases as 57,118 people tested positive and 764 died in the last 24 hours, reports Hindustan Times.
That pushed its tally to nearly 1.7 million, data from Indian Health Ministry showed on Saturday.
Figures from the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) revealed that 525,689 tests had been conducted to identify infections.
There are 1,695,988 cases of the viral disease, including 36,511 deaths, as of Saturday morning, according to the health ministry’s dashboard.
During a Cabinet meeting on Friday, Health Minister Harsh Vardhan said only one in three positive cases nationwide were under medical care.
"India has achieved the milestone of more than 1 million recoveries, which has taken the recovery rate to 64.54%. This shows that the active cases under medical supervision are only 33.27%, or approximately one-third of total positive cases. India's case-fatality rate is also progressively reducing and currently stands at 2.18%, one of the lowest globally," said Vardhan.
New virus hotspots are on the rise in India as cases decline in the major cities of Mumbai and Delhi.
More than a million cases were added to the country’s infection tally in July—from 585,493 on July 1 to 1,638,870 on July 31—and the death toll went up to 35,747 from 17,400 in the same period.
The recovery rate stands at 64.52% after 1,094,374 patients—36,569 between Friday and Saturday morning—have been cured so far. The gap between active cases, at 565,103, and recovered cases now stands at 529,271.
The surge in numbers came as the country entered the third phase of lifting lockdown from Saturday. Dubbed as, Unlock 2.0, in which the government had eased some restrictions after the 68-day hard lockdown, ended on Friday. It was the second of a three-phase plan aimed at lifting restrictions imposed to stop the spread of the infection.
The central government had issued guidelines for the third phase of lifting curbs imposed to stop the spread of the coronavirus disease on Wednesday, announcing that gyms and yoga centres can reopen from August 5, while also removing a night curfew that restricted movement of people outside containment zones.
The new guidelines, which came into effect from Saturday, said that a strict lockdown will continue in containment zones – areas that report clusters of the disease – till August 31 and asked authorities to maintain strict perimeter control in such zones.
The latest guidelines said that schools, colleges, theatres, swimming pools, metro rail, cinema halls and bars will continue to remain closed. Social, political, religious, sports and entertainment functions and other large congregations will also not be allowed.