India has witnessed 933 COVID-19 fatalities in the past 24 hours till Friday and fresh infections surged by another 61,537 cases to reach nearly 2.1 million.
The Health Ministry says the total deaths touched 42,518, including more than 20,000 in the past 30 days.
An average of around 50,000 new cases are reported each day since mid-June.
The ministry asked state authorities to test grocery shop workers and street vendors, saying that if undetected they can potentially spread infection to a large number of people.
India has the third-highest caseload in the world after the United States and Brazil. It has the fifth-most deaths but its fatality rate of about 2% is far lower than the top two hardest-hit countries.
Even as India has maintained comparatively low mortality rates, the disease has spread widely across the country.
