India's COVID-19 tally has crossed the 66-lakh mark with 74,442 new coronavirus cases and 903 deaths reported in the last 24 hours, the Health Ministry data released on Monday morning shows.
The country now has 66,23,816 total cases of coronavirus, including 9,34,427 active cases and 55,86,704 recoveries. A total of 1,02,685 people have lost their lives to COVID-19 till now.
According to the data from the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), India conducted 9,89,860 sample tests in a single day on Sunday, taking the total number of samples tested so far to 7,99,82,394.
Meanwhile, India has exceeded the 140 tests per day for per million population, as advised by the World Health Organization (WHO) for comprehensive surveillance, of COVID-19 by nearly six times, said the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) on Monday.
"WHO in its Guidance Note on "Public Health Criteria to Adjust Public Health and Social Measures in the Context of COVID-19" has advised that a country needs 140 tests/day/million population for comprehensive surveillance of suspected cases," the MoHFW's tweet read.
"India has exceeded 140 tests/day/million population as advised by WHOby nearly 6 times. Several States/UTs have demonstrated better performance than the national average," it added.
The MoHFW further said that many Indian states and Union Territories (UTs) are performing significantly better than even the national average in conducting tests. As per a graph shared by the Union Health Ministry, India is performing 828 tests per day per million population, as per the latest data.
India's COVID-19 tally had crossed the 20-lakh mark on August 7, 30 lakh on August 23 and 40 lakh on September 5. It went past 50 lakh on September 16 and crossed 60 lakh on September 28.
India is at number one position in terms of the number of recovered coronavirus cases followed by Brazil and the US, according to the Johns Hopkins University, which has been compiling COVID-19 data from all over the world.
