India reports 14,313 fresh COVID-19 cases & 549 deaths in last 24 hours

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With 14,313 people testing positive for coronavirus in a day, India’s total tally of COVID-19 cases rose to 3,42,60,470, while the active cases were recorded at 1,61,555, according to the Union health ministry data updated on Saturday.

The death toll climbed to 4,57,740 with 549 more fatalities, according to the data updated at 8 am.

The daily rise in new coronavirus infections has been below 30,000 for 36 straight days and less than 50,000 daily new cases have been reported for 125 consecutive days now.

The active cases comprise 0.47 per cent of the total infections, the lowest since March 2020, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate was recorded at 98.19 per cent, the ministry said.

An increase of 221 cases has been recorded in the active COVID-19 caseload in a span of 24 hours. The number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 3,36,41,175, while the case fatality rate has increased to 1.34 per cent.

The daily positivity rate was recorded at 1.22 per cent. It has been less than 2 per cent for the last 26 days.

The weekly positivity rate was recorded at 1.18 per cent. It has been below 2 per cent for the last 36 days, according to the health ministry.

The cumulative doses administered in the country so far under the nationwide COVID-19 vaccination drive has exceeded 105.43 crore.

India’s COVID-19 tally had crossed the 20-lakh mark on August 7, 2020, 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.

India crossed the grim milestone of two crore on May 4 and three crore on June 23.

The 549 new fatalities include 471 from Kerala and 36 from Maharashtra.

Kerala has been reconciling Covid deaths since the last few days, hence the death tally of the state is high.

Of the 471 deaths, 86 were reported in the last few days, 276 were those which were not confirmed until June 18 last year due to lack of adequate documentation and 109 were designated as Covid deaths after receiving appeals based on the new guidelines of the Centre and Supreme Court directions, a state government release said on Friday.

A total of 4,57,740 deaths have been reported so far in the country, including 1,40,170 from Maharashtra, 38,061 from Karnataka, 36,083 from Tamil Nadu, 31,156 from Kerala, 25,091 from Delhi, 22,900 from Uttar Pradesh and 19,113 from West Bengal.

The health ministry stressed that more than 70 per cent of the 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 the state-wise distribution of figures is subject to further verification and reconciliation.