India has overtaken the United States to register the highest number of COVID-19 recoveries in the world, informed Union Health Ministry on Saturday.

The total recoveries in the country crossed 42 lakh.

“India overtakes the USA and becomes No.1 in terms of global COVID19 RECOVERIES. TOTAL RECOVERIES cross 42 lakh,” it tweeted.

The Ministry further stated that timely steps taken by the government to detect the virus have resulted in this global achievement.

“Centre-led focussed, calibrated, responsive and effective measures of early identification through high and aggressive testing, prompt surveillance and tracking coupled with standardised high-quality clinical care have together resulted in this global achievement,” it said in another tweet.

India’s COVID-19 case tally crossed the 53-lakh mark with a spike of 93,337 new cases and 1,247 deaths in the last 24 hours, informed Health Ministry on Saturday. The total case tally stands at 53,08,015 including 10,13,964 active cases, 42,08,432 cured/discharged/migrated and 85,619 deaths.

According to the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), the cumulative total samples tested up to September 18 are 6,24,54,254. The number of samples tested on September 18 is 8,81,911.

As far as the active cases are concerned in the states, as per the Health Ministry, Maharashtra has 301273 active cases, Karnataka 101148, Andhra Pradesh 84423, Uttar Pradesh 67825 and Tamil Nadu 46506.