New Delhi, Oct 21 : With a fresh spike of 54,044 coronavirus infections and 717 deaths in 24 hours, India's tally on Wednesday stood at 76,51,107. Out of these, 7,40,090 are currently active, 67,95,103 have been discharged, while 1,15,914 lost the battle against the pandemic. The country saw 7,254 more than Tuesday's fresh infections, after witnessing slight decline in new cases. While the recovery rate stands at 88.81 per cent, the fatality rate is 1.51 per cent, the data from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said. Maharashtra continues to be the worst-hit with a total of 16,09,516 cases, including 42,453 deaths; followed by Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh and Delhi. According to the data from the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), India conducted 10,83,608 sample tests in a single day on Tuesday, taking the total number of samples tested so far to 9,72,00,379. According to the ministry, Covid-19 cases on oxygen support (in ICUs, through ventilators and oxygen supported beds) have shown a significant decrease since the last week of September. This aligns with the national decline of active cases to less than 10 per cent of the total cases. Refuting the widespread reports about the scarcity of Liquid Medical Oxygen (LMO) in the country, the ministry has stated that there has never been any shortage of the medical oxygen in the country in the last 10 months, adding "we are in an extremely comfortable position". The ICMR Director General Balram Bhargava has stated that the plasma therapy may be deleted from the national clinical protocols for the management of the Covid-19 disease. /IANS