India continues to maintain the record of registering the lowest COVID-19 mortality rate on the global platform, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said on Saturday.

"The Case Fatality Rate stands at 2.15% on Friday, lowest since the first lockdown. It has been continuously reducing from around 3.33% in mid-June" the ministry said. The case fatality rate, in epidemiology, is the proportion of people who die from disease among all individuals diagnosed with it.

The reduction is being attributed to focused, coordinated, pre-emptive, graded and evolving 'Test Track Treat' strategy and the efforts of the Centre along with the state governments.

The emphasis on early detection through aggressive testing and effective clinical management of the hospitalized cases has resulted in the continuously falling fatality rate, the ministry officials said, adding that it indicates that India has been able to successfully contain the fatality rate of COVID-19.

On Saturday, India reported a new record surge of 57,118 fresh infections, taking the total number of cases to 16,95,988. The country also witnessed 764 COVID-19 related deaths in the last 24 hours. The total fatalities due to the virus now stand at 36,511.

Meanwhile, the total number of recovered cases are nearly eleven lakh. With 36,569 patients discharged in the last 24 hours, the total recoveries have jumped to 10,94,374. The recovery rate stands at 64.53 percent amongst COVID-19 patients.

With such a consistent increase in recoveries, the gap between recovered patients and active COVID-19 cases currently stands at 5,29,271. Active cases (5,65,103) are under medical supervision.

As on Saturday, there were 1488 dedicated COVID Hospitals with 2,49,358 isolation beds, 31,639 ICU beds, 1,09,119 oxygen supported beds and 16,678 ventilators. 3231 dedicated COVID Health Centres with 2,07,239 isolation beds, 18,613 ICU beds and 74,130 oxygen supported beds and 6,668 ventilators have also been operationalised.

Moreover, 10,755 COVID Care Centres with 10,02,681 beds are now available to combat COVID-19 in the country. The Centre has also provided 273.85 lakh N95 masks and 121.5 lakh Personal Protective Equipment (PPEs) and 1083.77 lakh HCQ tablets to the States and Central Institutions.(IANS)