Continuing with the trend of highest single-day spikes, India on Saturday recorded 57,117 fresh Coronavirus cases in the last 24 hours taking tally to 16,95,988, data shared by the Ministry of Health said.

As many as 764 people succumbed to the deadly infection in the same period taking the death toll to 36,511.

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Of the total infections, 5,65,103 are active cases while a whopping tally of 10,94,374 patients have been cured.

The recovery rate continues to improve and currently stands at 64.52 per cent. The positivity rate — percentage of patients who have tested positive for coronavirus — stood at 10.86 per cent this morning.

However, India is the third worst-hit country in terms of cases.

The total number of COVID-19 samples tested up to 31 July is 1,93,58,659 including 5,25,689 samples tested on Friday.

Meanwhile, on the occasion of Eid al-Adha, the state governments are being cautious and are following all preventive measures in view of the Coronavirus pandemic.

With lockdown restrictions eased in parts of the country, devotees were seen visiting mosques while maintaining social distancing and wearing masks as preventive measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

Several mosques, including Jama Masjid and Fatehpuri Masjid in Delhi, held the prayers today on the auspicious occasion.

Temperature checks of devotees were done at mosques as a precautionary measure to contain the spread of Coronavirus.

Meanwhile, on Thursday, the Government said herd immunity in a country with the size and population of India cannot be a strategic option, and stressed that it can only be achieved through immunisation.

Herd immunity refers to the situation when the spread of a disease is stopped naturally when enough of the population becomes resistant to the virus and not enough people are able to transmit it.

Hopes of ‘herd immunity’ have risen after the encouraging results of the first Serological Surveillance for SARS-CoV2 Infection in Mumbai.

The results of the first survey in early-July, conducted in Mumbai slums and other residential areas, have tentatively pointed toward ‘herd immunity’.

The survey showed that 57 per cent of those tested in the slums were exposed to and developed antibodies against the SARS-CoV-2 Virus, compared to merely 16 per cent in housing complexes.

Also, Delhi, which was the second worst-hit state for almost two months, currently has the highest recovery rate at 88 per cent.

At the global front, the total number of Coronavirus cases has topped 17.5 million, while the deaths have increased to more than 678,000, according to the Johns Hopkins University.

As of Saturday morning, the total number of cases stood at 17,516,264 and the fatalities rose to 678,226, 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 infections and fatalities at 4,559,008 and 153,311, respectively, according to the CSSE.

Brazil is in the second place with 2,662,485 infections and 92,475 deaths.

On Friday, Anthony Fauci, America’s leading authority on the pandemic, said that a safe and effective COVID-19 vaccine will be a “reality” by the end of the year.

The administration of President Donald Trump has launched a programme, Operation Warpspeed, to rapidly produce a vaccine for Covid-19, which, he said, would have a vaccine ready by late Fall (autumn) or early winter.