India: COVID-19 cases at nearly 1.7 million

India on Saturday recorded over 57,000 more cases of the novel coronavirus over the past 24 hours, raising the overall infection tally to nearly 1.7 million.

According to the Health Ministry, the total number of COVID-19 cases in India climbed to 1,695,988, including 764 who had died of the disease over the last day.

Figures from the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) revealed that 525,689 tests had been conducted to identify infections.

During a Cabinet meeting on Friday, Health Minister Harsh Vardhan said only one in three positive cases nationwide were under medical care.

"India has achieved the milestone of more than 1 million recoveries, which has taken the recovery rate to 64.54%. This shows that the active cases under medical supervision are only 33.27%, or approximately one-third of total positive cases. India's case-fatality rate is also progressively reducing and currently stands at 2.18%, one of the lowest globally," said Vardhan.

New virus hotspots are on the rise in India as cases decline in the major cities of Mumbai and Delhi.

The coronavirus pandemic has claimed over 679,000 lives in 188 countries and regions since it originated in China last December.

More than 17.5 million COVID-19 cases have been reported around the world so far, with recoveries nearing 10.3 million, according to figures compiled by the US' Johns Hopkins University.

The US, Brazil, India, and Russia are currently the worst-hit countries in the world.