By PTI
NEW DELHI: India saw a single-day rise of 10,853 COVID-19 infections, which took the country’s total tally of cases to 3,43,55,536, while active cases have declined to 1,44,845, the lowest in 260 days, according to Union health ministry data updated on Sunday.
The death toll has climbed to 4,60,791 with 526 more fatalities, according to the data updated at 8 am.
The daily rise in new coronavirus infections has been below 20,000 for 30 straight days and less than 50,000 daily new cases have been reported for 133 consecutive days now, the ministry said.
The active cases have declined to 1,44,845, comprising 0.42 per cent of the total infections, the lowest since March last year, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate has been recorded at 98.24 per cent, the highest since March last year, it said.
The data stated that a decrease of 2,105 cases has been recorded in active COVID-19 cases in a span of 24 hours.
The daily positivity rate has been recorded at 1.18 per cent.
It has been less than two per cent for the last 34 days.
The weekly positivity rate has been recorded at 1.28 per cent.
It has been below two per cent for the last 44 days, according to the health ministry.
The number of people, who have recuperated from the disease, has increased to 3,37,49,900, while the case fatality rate has been recorded at 1.34 per cent, the data stated.
The cumulative doses administered so far under the nationwide COVID-19 vaccination drive has exceeded 108.21 crore.
India’s COVID-19 tally had crossed the 20-lakh mark on August 7 last year, 30 lakh on August 23, 40 lakh on September 5 and 50 lakh on September 16.
It went past 60 lakh on September 28, 70 lakh on October 11, crossed 80 lakh on October 29, 90 lakh on November 20 and surpassed the one-crore mark on December 19 last year.
India crossed two crore cases on May 4 and three crore cases on June 23.
The 526 new fatalities include 467 from Kerala, 14 from West Bengal and 10 each from Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu, the ministry said.
Kerala has been reconciling data on COVID-19 deaths since the past few days, hence the death tally of the state is high.
It said 4,60,791 deaths have been reported so far in the country including 1,40,372 from Maharashtra, 38,107 from Karnataka, 36,214 from Tamil Nadu, 33,515 from Kerala, 25,091 from Delhi, 22,903 from Uttar Pradesh and 19,215 from West Bengal.
The health ministry said that more than 70 per cent of deaths occurred due to comorbidities.
“Our figures are being reconciled with the Indian Council of Medical Research,” the ministry said on its website, adding that state-wise distribution of figures is subject to further verification and reconciliation.
Meanwhile, the cumulative COVID-19 vaccine doses administered in the country crossed 108 crore on Saturday, the Union Health Ministry said.
On Saturday, more than 25 lakh (25,54,917) vaccine doses have been administered till 7 pm.
The daily vaccination tally is expected to increase with the compilation of final reports for the day by late night, the ministry said.
The vaccination exercise as a tool to protect the most vulnerable population groups in the country from COVID-19 continues to be regularly reviewed and monitored at the highest level, the ministry underlined.
The countrywide vaccination drive was rolled out on January 16 with healthcare workers getting inoculated in the first phase.
The vaccination of frontline workers started from February 2.
The next phase of COVID-19 vaccination commenced from March 1 for people over 60 years of age and those aged 45 and above with specified co-morbid conditions.
The country launched vaccination for all people aged more than 45 years from April 1.
The government then decided to expand its vaccination drive by allowing everyone above 18 to be vaccinated from May 1.
