People lower the body of a man who died from coronavirus into a grave in New Delhi, India. File/Reuters

Gulf Today Report

India recorded 91,702 new COVID cases as 3,403 people succumbed to the virus in last 24 hours, according to data released by the Union Health and Family Welfare Ministry on Friday.

This is the fourth consecutive day when India has reported less than 100,000 cases, according to Indo-Asian News Service.

The Indian state of Bihar has increased its COVID-19 death toll after the discovery of thousands of unreported cases, raising concerns that many more fatalities were not officially recorded.

A patient attended inside a vehicle at a dedicated COVID-19 government hospital in Ahmedabad. AP

The health department in Bihar, one of the poorest states, on Thursday revised its COVID-19 fatality count to more than 9,429 from 5,424 - a jump of more than 70%.

On June 8, India recorded 86,498 cases, lowest since April 2 when the country logged 89,129 new cases.

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Officials said the 3,951 unreported fatalities had occurred in May and reflect "deaths reported at private hospitals, in transit to health facilities, under home isolation and those dying of post COVID-19 complications.”

Health experts say many COVID-19 fatalities remain unrecorded in India, more so during the latest surge in April and May, when hospitals ran unbearably full and oxygen supplies were low.

India's overall tally of COVID-19 cases now stands at 29,274,823 with 1,121,671 active cases and 363,079 deaths so far.

A mass cremation of victims who died due to  coronavirus in New Delhi. Reuters

India’s federal ministers from the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party have dismissed reports of undercounting as exaggerated and misleading. In the past, states like Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu have also recalibrated death numbers.

Overall, India’s cases and deaths have fallen steadily in the past weeks.

The 91,702 cases added in the past 24 hours pushed India’s total to more than 29.3 million on Friday, second only to the United States. The Health Ministry also reported 3,403 fatalities in the past 24 hours, raising the overall death toll to 363,079.

Patients suffering from COVID-19 share a bed as they receive treatment in Lok Nayak Jai Prakash hospital. Reuters

After battling a brutal second wave for weeks, fresh COVID cases came down below the three lakh-mark for the first time on May 17 after touching record high of 414,188 on May 7.

The Health Ministry said that a total of 246,085,649 people have been vaccinated so far in the country, including 3,274,672 who were administered vaccines in the last 24 hours.

According to the Indian Council of Medical Research, 374,242,384 samples have been tested up to June 10 for COVID-19. Of these 2,044,131 samples were tested on Thursday.