NEW DELHI — India"s total coronavirus cases rose by 61,267 over the past 24 hours to 6.69 million on Tuesday morning, data from the health ministry showed. This was the smallest single-day increase since Aug. 25. Deaths from COVID-19 infections rose by 884 to 103,569, the ministry said. India"s death toll from the novel coronavirus rose past 100,000 on Saturday, only the third country in the world to reach that bleak milestone, after the United States and Brazil, and its epidemic shows no sign of abating. The total recoveries in the country surged to 5,662,490, with the recovery rate rising to 84.70 percent. The number of active cases continued to decline, with a net reduction of 15,404 to 919,023, the lowest level since Sept. 10, making 13.75 percent of the total caseload. The overall coronavirus case fatality rate was recorded at 1.55 percent. According to the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), a total of 81,071,797 samples have been tested as of Oct. 5 with 1,089,403 samples being tested on Monday. The 884 new fatalities include 263 persons from Maharashtra, 84 persons from Karnataka, 63 persons from Uttar Pradesh, 62 persons from Tamil Nadu, 61 persons from West Bengal, 38 persons each from Punjab and Andhra Pradesh, 36 persons from Chhattisgarh, and 32 persons from Delhi. Last week, India further eased restrictions and permitted states to open schools and movie theaters. — Agencies