Union Health Ministry on Thursday reiterated that the high number of novel coronavirus cases in India are largely localized outbreaks in some pockets and the deadly virus has still not entered the community transmission stage in the country.

India saw yet another record single-day jump of 26,506 COVID-19 cases pushing its tally to 7,93,802 on Friday, while the death toll climbed to 21,604 with 475 people succumbing to the infection, according to the Union Health Ministry data

The number of recoveries stands at 4,95,51, while there are 2,76,685 active cases of coronavirus infection presently in the country, the updated data at 8 am showed.

"Thus, around 62.42 per cent of patients have recovered so far," an official said.

The total number of confirmed cases included foreigners.

Of the 475 deaths, 219  are from Maharashtra, 65 from Tamil Nadu, 45 from Delhi, 27 from West Bengal, 17 from Uttar Pradesh, 16 from Karnataka, 15 from Gujarat, 13 from Andhra Pradesh, 9 from Rajasthan, eight from Bihar, seven from Telangana, six from Assam, five each from Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir and Punjab, four from Odisha and one from Chhattisgarh, Goa, Jhakhand and Meghalaya.

The ministry said that 8 states, including Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Delhi, Karnataka and Telangana, account for around 90 per cent of the total active cases in the country and 80 per cent of the active cases have been reported from 49 districts. Similarly, highest fatalities have been largely recorded in 6 states -- Maharashtra, Delhi, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal – where 86 per cent of the total deaths caused by the virus have occurred. In all, 32 districts account for 80 per cent of these fatalities.

The government is happy with the improving recovery rate which is now 62.42 per cent and the number of recovered persons is 1.75 times that of active cases. The gap between the recovered and active cases is widening and has crossed 2 lakhs.

Officials said it would be unfair to compare India with other countries in terms of absolute numbers, India has 195.5 cases per million population which is amongst the lowest in the world. They said deaths per million population in India are 15.31 which translates to a fatality rate of 2.75% while the global deaths per million population stands at 68.7%.

“Cases per million population in some countries are at least 16-17 times more than what it is in India. We have 15 deaths per million population whereas in other  countries it is 40 times higher,” said Rajesh Bhushan, OSD, Ministry of Health. On the MIT Study that claimed India will have 2.87 lakh cases per day by February 2021, Mr Bhsuahn said  a lot of parameters cannot be interpreted in mathematical models and there is no account of how the virus will behave and how the communities will respond to it.

Meanwhile, Union Home Ministry said that the situation in Delhi has shown remarkable improvement as the recovery rate goes over 72 per cent and doubling rate is now nearly 30 days.