About 70% of India's active caseload from eight states/UT: Health ministry

Nearly 70 per cent of India's COVID-19 active caseload is from Maharashtra, Kerala, Delhi, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, West Bengal, and Chhattisgarh, the Union health ministry said on Friday.

Of the total deaths recorded so far, 83.80 per cent are from 10 states/UT Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Punjab, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Delhi, it said.

The active COVID-19 caseload in India stands at 4,55,555 on Friday which is 4.89 per cent of the total cases, the ministry said in a statement.

"About 70 per cent (69.59 per cent) of the total active cases is contributed by eight states/UT i.e. Maharashtra, Kerala, Delhi, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, West Bengal and Chhattisgarh," it said.

The ministry said Maharashtra leads the tally with 87,014 total active COVID cases, while Kerala has 64,615 and Delhi follows with 38,734.

India's COVID-19 infection tally climbed to 93,09,787 with 43,082 new cases in a day, while 87,18,517 people have recuperated so far, pushing the national recovery rate to 93.64 per cent on Friday, according to the Union health ministry data.

The death toll climbed to 1,35,715 with the novel coronavirus virus claiming 492 lives in a span of 24 hours in the country, the data updated at 8 am showed.