India on Thursday recorded another 24,879 cases of the coronavirus disease Covid-19 (in a 24-hour span), which took its tally of infection to 7,67,296.

The total number of active cases in the country stand at 2,69,789, according to Union health ministry update at 8 am. Over 4.7 lakh patients have been cured or discharged.

So far, 21,129 people have died due to the disease (487 in the last 24 hours), the health ministry data showed.

There have been a number of studies on the disease and its projected spread. The most alarming so far has been the once done by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) which has projected that India will witness 2.87 lakh coronavirus cases per day by the end of winter 2021 in the absence of a Covid-19 vaccine or drug intervention.

The researchers, however, noted that the projections should be interpreted as indicators of potential risk and not precise predictions of future cases.

There has been no reaction so far from the government about the latest study.

More than 22,700 cases and 482 fatalities were added to India’s tally on Wednesday, but the health ministry said that the recovery rate improved to over 61.5 per cent.

It also said that the government has roped in specialist doctors from Delhi’s AIIMS to provide expert guidance and knowledge support on Covid-19 to doctors manning ICUs in state hospitals, in an effort to reduce the fatality rate.

The doctors will provide guidance on effective clinical management of coronavirus infected patients in the ICUs of different state hospitals through tele/video consultation.

With more coronavirus patients recovering, the gap between the number of recovered cases and active cases has increased by 1,91,886 as on date, the health ministry said.

It also said that the number of samples being tested for detection of Covid-19 is substantially growing every day. The cumulative number of samples tested, as of now, is 1,04,73,771, the ministry said, adding that the tests per million stand at 7,180.