New Delhi, Aug 21 (TIWN) With 68,898 new Coronavirus infections in 24 hours, India tally mounted to 2,905,823 on Friday, while the death toll climbed to 54,849 with 983 more fatalities, said the Health Ministry.

Out of the total cases, recoveries have crossed the 20 lakh-mark and surged to 21,58,946 with 62,282 more people recuperating in the past 24 hours, taking the recovery rate to nearly 74.30 per cent. The actual caseload of the country is the active cases, which currently stands at 6,92,028.

India’s journey to over 29 lakh cases has taken over 200 days since the emergence of the first case on January 30. On July 17, the country logged 10 lakh cases, which then doubled to 20 lakh in 20 days on August 7 and added more than nine lakh cases in just 14 days.

Notably, the case fatality rate, which is the proportion of people who die from the disease among individuals diagnosed, has dropped to 1.89 per cent, the Ministry said. As many as 8,05,985 samples were tested on Thursday.