(Xinhua/NAN)

The number of COVID-19 cases in India rose to 2,329,638 on Wednesday as the deaths crossed the 46,000 mark, reaching 46,091, said the data released by the Federal Health Ministry.

Over the past 24 hours, as many as 60,963 new cases were recorded across the country, while 834 deaths due to the virus were registered.

There are a total of 643,948 active cases in India presently and 1,639,599 people have been cured and discharged from hospitals.

Wednesday is the 13th consecutive day when over 50,000 COVID-19 cases have been recorded in India.

The recent surge in fresh cases is due to ramping of samples testing.

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A total of 733,449 samples were tested on Tuesday alone, bringing total samples tested to 26,015297.

According to the federal health ministry, the recovery rate amongst the COVID-19 patients has reached almost 70 per cent.

Also, the fatality rate presently stands at two per cent and is steadily declining.

On Tuesday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that there was an urgent need to increase testing of samples to curb COVID-19 in 10 states, which account for nearly 80 per cent of fresh cases across the country.

These states are Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Maharashtra, Punjab, Bihar, Gujarat, Telangana, and Uttar Pradesh.

Interacting with the chief ministers of all the 10 states through video-conferencing, Modi stated that if the virus was defeated in these states, the entire country would emerge victorious in the battle against COVID-19.