A health worker (left) collects a swab sample from a boy to test for the COVID-19 coronavirus at a center in a residential area, in Hyderabad. Some experts predict that India will have more than 7 million confirmed cases by early October, and will surpass the US with the most cases in the world. Photo: AFP

 
The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in India Thursday morning rose to 5,118,253, India's federal health ministry said.

During the past 24 hours, a record 97,894 new cases were reported from across the country, and 1,132 new deaths were recorded, bringing the death toll to 83,198, according to the ministry.

According to ministry officials, 4,025,079 people have been discharged from hospitals after showing improvement.

"The number of active cases in the country right now is 1,009,976," the information released by the ministry reads.

Meanwhile, 60,565,728 samples were tested so far across the country, out of which 1,136,613 tests were conducted on Wednesday alone, Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) said Thursday.