New Delhi: India's Health Ministry on Tuesday asserted that the coronavirus recovery rate is continuously improving, while the fatality rate is on the decline and one of the lowest in the world. In a press briefing, Joint Secretary, Health, Lav Agrawal said: "Recovery rate of the nation is continuously improving, a total of 95,527 patients have been cured. Recovery rate is now 48.07 percent, up from 11.42 percent on April 15."

He said that the fatality rate is also declining and stands at 2.82 percent, which he claims is the "lowest in the world", compared to a global fatality rate of 6.13 percent.

"Our case fatality rate per lakh population too is amongst the lowest in the world, while there are countries with a figure as high as 62 and 82."

Agarwal said that 14 countries with a similar population as India have reported 22.5 times more cases and 55.2 times deaths.

"We have been able to achieve this due to timely identification of cases and proper clinical management," he emphasised.

He went on to say that 73 percent of the deaths in the nation have been of people with comorbidities such as diabetes, hypertension, heart and respiratory diseases.

"Our analysis shows that people at high risk from COVID-19 are elderly people and those with comorbidities," Agrawal added.

Meanwhile, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) said that it is conducting a serological survey to assess the extent of spread of COVID-19. Almost 34,000 people are being tested as a part of the survey, the results will be published in a week, it said.

"ICMR has been focusing on increasing COVID-19 testing capacity, we now have testing facilities in every state and UT, we now have 681 labs out of which 476 are in government sector, now we are testing 1.2 lakh samples every day," an ICMR official said.

Meanwhile, India witnessed 8,171 new coronavirus cases in 24 hours. With this, the total case count mounted to 1,98,706 on Tuesday. At least 204 new fatalities were also recorded in 24 hours, taking the toll to 5,598.

The country witnessed more than 8,000 cases for the third consecutive day. With this, India has inched closer to the two-lakh mark.