DW BUREAU / chandigarh HARYANA on Saturday reported seven more coronavirus deaths, pushing the toll to 297, while 648 fresh cases raised the state's infection tally to 20,582, according to a health department bulletin.Of the seven deaths reported on Saturday, three were from Faridabad, one from Gurgaon, two from Sonipat and one from Nuh district, the state health department's daily bulletin said. There have been 104 fatalities due to the virus in Gurgaon, while 101 people have succumbed to COVID-19 infection in Faridabad so far, it said.These two districts account for close to 12,000 virus cases. The districts which reported fresh cases include Gurgaon (170), Sonipat (110), Faridabad (90), Rewari (56), Ambala (42), Hisar (31), Jhajjar (28) and Panipat (21), the bulletin said. The total number of active cases in the state now stands at 4,891, while 15,394 patients have recovered from the infection, it said. The state's recovery rate on Saturday was 74.79 per cent, the health bulletin said. With a record single-day increase of 27,114 cases, India's COVID-19 tally zoomed past the eight-lakh mark on Saturday, just four days after crossing the seven-lakh post, according to the Union Health ministry data. The total coronavirus caseload in the country surged to 8,20,916 on Saturday while the death toll climbed to 22,123 with 519 people succumbing to the disease in 24 hours, the updated data at 8 am showed. This was the eighth consecutive day that COVID-19 cases in the country increased by more than 22,000. The rise in the number of coronavirus cases has gained pace significantly. It took 110 days for the number of cases in the country to reach one lakh but just 53 days more to race past the eight-lakh mark. It took 64 days for COVID-19 cases in India to rise above one lakh from 100, and another fortnight to cross two lakh on June 3. It took 10 days for the tally to touch the three lakh-mark and another eight days for the cases to climb above four lakh on June 21. In another six days, the total tally raced past the five-lakh mark. Then it took 10 days to cross seven lakh. With effective implementation of containment zones, surveillance activities, timely diagnosis and effective clinical management of cases, the total number of recovered patients has crossed the 5 lakh-mark on Saturday, the Union Health ministry said. A total of 5,15,385 COVID-19 patients have recovered so far with 19,870 COVID-19 patients having been cured and discharged in the last 24 hours till 8 am. "The recovered cases outnumber the COVID-19 active cases by 2,31,978. With this progressively widening gap, the recovery rate has further improved to 62.78 per cent," the ministry said. There are 2,83,407 active cases and all are under medical supervision, with severe cases being admitted in hospitals and pre-symptomatic patients and those showing moderate symptoms in home isolation. According to the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), a cumulative total of 1,13,07,002 swab samples have been tested for COVID-19 up to July 10, of which 2,82,511 been tested on Friday. Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday appreciated the efforts of the Centre, state and the local authorities in containing the COVID-19 situation in Delhi, and directed that a similar approach be replicated in checking the pandemic in the entire NCR area. Priority is close monitoring and guiding the containment works in regions where the infection rate is high," the prime minister wrote on Twitter after holding a review meeting to take stock of the COVID-19 situation in various parts of the country and the preparedness of various states. According to a statement issued by the Prime minister's Office, Modi also directed that real-time national level monitoring and guidance should be provided to all affected states. (editor@dailyworld.in)