New Delhi, Aug 18 (IANS): India's Coronavirus tally crossed the 27-lakh mark on Tuesday with 55,079 fresh cases in 24 hours, while the toll climbed to 51,797 with 876 more fatalities, said the Health Ministry.

Out of the total 27,02,742 cases, recoveries have surged to 19,77,779 with 57,937 more people recuperating in the past 24 hours, taking the recovery rate to nearly 73.17 percent. The actual caseload of the country is the active cases, which currently stands at 6,73,166.

The country had touched the 20-lakh mark on August 7 and added more than seven lakh cases in 11 days.

The silver lining, however, is that the gap between recoveries and active cases is growing every day. Currently, recoveries are over 12 lakh more than the active cases.

As far as the death toll is concerned, the country had registered its first death on March 13 and crossed the 25,000-mark on July 17. The next 25,000 deaths were logged in the span of a month.

Notably, the case fatality rate, which is the proportion of people who die from the disease among individuals diagnosed, has dropped to 1.91 percent, the ministry said. As many as 8,99,864 samples were tested on Monday.

Maharashtra remained the worst-hit state with a total of 5,95,865 cases and 20,037 deaths; followed by Tamil Nadu with 3,38,055 cases and 5,766 deaths. The southern state is followed by Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.

India continues to be the third-worst hit after the US with 5,437,969 cases and 170,491 deaths and Brazil with 3,359,570 infections and 108,536 deaths.