NEW DELHI — India on Friday reported another record daily spike of 96,551 coronavirus cases over the past 24 hours, raising the total number of confirmed infections past 4.5 million, according to data from the federal health ministry.

Deaths have remained relatively low in the country, but are seeing an upward trend, with more than one thousand deaths being reported every day for the last ten days.

On Friday, 1,209 people died due to complications caused by COVID-19, the ministry said, taking the total number of virus-related fatalities to 76,271.

According to the ministry data, the country’s recovery rate is a healthy 77.64 percent, the fatality rate is 1.67 percent.

Active cases, meanwhile, contribute 20.68 percent of the country’s total number of coronavirus cases.

Infections are growing faster in India than anywhere else in the world and the United States is the only nation worse affected.

India is also the only country to have recorded more than 80,000 and, later, over 90,000 cases in a single day, since the outbreak of the pandemic. — Agencies