India’s Covid-19 tally crossed the 24-lakh mark on Friday with 64,553 new cases in 24 hours, while the toll climbed to 48,040 with 1,007 more fatalities, said the Health Ministry.

Out of the total 2,461,190 cases, recoveries have surged to 1,751,555 with a record 55,573 more people recuperating in the past 24 hours, taking the recovery rate to nearly 71.17 percent.

The actual caseload of the country is the active cases, which currently stands at 6,61,595.

Notably, the case fatality rate, which is the proportion of people who die from the disease among individuals diagnosed, has dropped to 1.96 percent, the ministry said.

The country had touched the 20-lakh mark on August 7 and added more than four lakh cases in seven days. The silver lining, however, is that the gap between recoveries and active cases is growing every day. Currently, recoveries are over 10 lakh more than the active cases.

As many as 8,48,728 samples were tested on Thursday, taking the total to 2,76,94,416 samples being tested to date, according to the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).

Maharashtra remained the worst-hit state with a total of 5,60,126 cases and 19,063 deaths; followed by Tamil Nadu with 3,20,355 cases and 5,397 deaths. Then comes Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Delhi, and Uttar Pradesh.

On Thursday, the union government stated that it has distributed more than 3.04 crore N95 masks, more than 1.28 crore PPE kits to states, union territories, and central institutions free of cost in the last five months. Over 22,000 ‘Make in India’ ventilators have also been delivered.

The Centre has been strengthening the health infrastructure to fight the pandemic and effectively manage it. Along with augmenting Covid-19 facilities, the government has been providing medical supplies free of cost to the state and union territories to supplement their efforts.

India continues to be the third worst-hit after Brazil with 3,164,785 infections and 104,201 deaths, and the US with 5,248,172 cases and 167,092 fatalities.

Industrial activity in Agra, Aligarh, Firozabad, and Mathura has been affected as a result of the restrictions imposed due to the Covid-19 pandemic that has forced people to remain confined to their homes.

The sectors worst-hit are the iron foundries, tourism, leather shoe industry in Agra, glassware, and bangle manufacturing units in Firozabad, the lock industry in Aligarh and silver jewelry, saree dyeing and traditional dressmaking units in Mathura.

The seasonal labor from rural areas has stopped reaching the industrial clusters. “Those who can afford are waiting for happy times, others have enrolled for work under MANGA. In many villages, the migrant workers have taken to farming,” a village development officer said.

Since there is no demand pressure right now, (the four months of the rainy season are considered a lean period in terms of productivity ), the situation is not yet alarming.

Industrialists are hopeful that after the rains, and some respite from Covid-19 by early October, there could be a turnaround.

“Though the government has initiated a whole range of economic reforms and announced so many incentives for startups, the general sentiment is low. It is not so easy to start an enterprise with loans and then to sustain the momentum in present times,” said an entrepreneur struggling with his unit in the industrial estate.

Agra’s hospitality industry that engaged more than a lakh people, directly and indirectly, see no light at the end of the tunnel, though a few hotels have ventured to open their properties.

“Until the Taj Mahal and other monuments reopen, the visitors will not come to Agra. Mobility right now is badly hit, though there are reports that in October, Agra would be connected by air to Bangaluru and other big cities,” said tourist guide Ved Gautam.

The Covid-19 situation continues to remain grim in the Agra region. While the Taj city reported 36 fresh cases, Mathura recorded 52, Firozabad 15 including six members of a hotelier’s family, Etah 20 and Mainpuri 21, in the last 24 hours.

Agra now has 346 active cases in 152 containment zones. The recovery rate, however, remains above 80 percent.

Health department officials said the rapid testing campaign had been initiated in the rural areas. The daily sampling rate is also steadily going up.

The continued wet spell has brought some cheer back in rural areas which were alarmed at the scanty rainfall in July. In the last 24 hours, there have been several good spells of showers resulting in water logging in the low lying areas in the city.