India's COVID-19 death toll breached the grim one lakh (100,000) mark while the number of positive cases surged past 64-lakh (6.4 million) on Saturday, the health ministry data showed.

It took the country 204 days to reach the grim mark after first the case was reported. A 76-year-old man had succumbed to the coronavirus disease on March 13, becoming the first fatality.

As per the latest data, with a spike of 79,476 coronavirus cases and 1,069 deaths in 24 hours, India's tally mounted to 64,73,544 cases, with 1,00,842 deaths. Exactly a month ago, India had recorded 67,376 deaths.

Out of the total cases, 9,44,996 are currently active, 54,27,706 have been discharged. While the recovery rate stands at a high of 83.84 per cent, the fatality rate has come down to 1.56 per cent, the data from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said.

Maharashtra continues to be the worst-hit with a total of 14,16,513 cases, including 37,480 deaths; followed by Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh and Delhi.

According to the data from the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), India conducted 11,32,675 sample tests in a single day on Friday, taking the total number of samples tested so far to 7,78,50,403.
(IANS)