New Delhi, Aug 22 (IANS): Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, there is some reason to cheer. India has achieved a record high of 63,631 recoveries in a day, the Health Ministry said. The daily tests on Saturday scaled a new high of more than 10 lakh, taking the cumulative tests to more than 3.4 crore.

According to the ministry, the country has recorded 69,878 new coronavirus infection cases in a single day taking the total tally of cases to 29,75,701. In the last 24 hours, 945 people lost their lives due to Covid-19 infection taking the total death tally to 55,794 cases.

The silver lining, however, is that India's total recoveries has exceeded the total active cases, which stand at 6,97,330, by more than 15 lakhs. The record high recoveries have ensured that the actual caseload of the country viz the active cases, has reduced and currently comprises only 23.43 per cent of the total positive cases.

"With this high number of COVID-19 patients recovering and being discharged from the hospitals and home isolation, the Recovery Rate has reached 74.69 per cent. This has also led to declining Case Fatality Rate, which stands at a new low of 1.87 per cent today," said the ministry officials.

They added: "Early identification through aggressive testing, comprehensive surveillance and contact tracing along with focus on timely and efficient clinical treatment of patients have ensured speedy recovery. Higher number of recoveries and declining fatality have shown that India's graded and pro-active strategy is delivering results on the field," said the health ministry.

Building on the continuum of care approach, the policy of testing aggressively, tracking comprehensively and treating efficiently, focussed attention on effective surveillance and house-to-house contact tracing has led to early detection and identification of COVID-19 cases.