India witnessed the highest single-day spike of 56,282 cases and 904 deaths in the past 24 hours, as mentioned by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. Currently, India has 19,64,537 cases including 5,95,501 active cases, 13,28,337 discharged and 40,699 deaths. With this India is inching towards the 2 million mark that has only been surpassed by Brazil (2,859,073) and the US (4,823,891).

As testing continues to increase, number of cases surfacing has also increased. So far India has conducted 2,21,49,351 tests, with 6,64,949 tests conducted on August 5 alone.

The government has said that the recovery rate continues to improve and has reached 67.19 per cent. The fatality rate has dropped to 2.09 per cent. "With increasing number of COVID-19 patients recovering, there has been a 63.8 per cent increase in recovered cases in the last 14 days, indicating that the COVID-19 response and management driven by the Centre's 'TEST, TRACK, TREAT' strategy is yielding the desired results," said the ministry in a statement.

However, states continue to report an increase in the number of cases, with Maharashtra topping the charts. Maharashtra has 1,46,268 active cases, 3,05,521 discharged and 16,476 deaths. Tamil Nadu has 54,184 active cases, 2,14,815 discharged and 4,461 deaths. Delhi has 10,072 active cases, 1,26,116 discharged and 4,044 deaths.

Meanwhile, at a virtual meeting with regional directors of WHO South-East Asia, Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan said, "Within 10-20 days, with the help of DRDO, we were able to create 1,000 to 10,000 beds for COVID19 patients. We are ensuring mental well being of populace amid pandemic."