India records 18,132 new COVID-19 cases, recovery rate increases to 98%

New Delhi: India logged 18,132 new coronavirus infections, the lowest in 215 days, taking the country's total tally of cases to 3,39,71,607, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate has increased to 98 per cent, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Monday.

The death toll climbed to 4,50,782 with 193 fresh fatalities.

The active cases have declined to 2,27,347, the lowest in 209 days, according to the data updated at 8 am.

The daily rise in new coronavirus infections has been below 30,000 for 17 straight days and less than 50,000 daily new cases have been reported for 106 consecutive days now.

The active cases comprise 0.67 per cent of the total infections, the lowest since March 2020.

A decrease of 3,624 cases has been recorded in the active COVID-19 caseload in a span of 24 hours.

As many as 10,35,797 tests were conducted on Sunday taking the total cumulative tests conducted so far for detection of COVID-19 in the country to 58,36,31,490.

The daily positivity rate was recorded at 1.75 per cent. It has been less than three per cent for last 42 days. The weekly positivity rate was recorded at 1.53 per cent. It has been below three per cent for the last 108 days, according to the ministry.

The number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 3,32,93,478, while the case fatality rate was recorded at 1.33 per cent.

The cumulative doses administered in the country so far under the nationwide COVID-19 vaccination drive has exceeded 95.19 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 193 new fatalities include 85 from Kerala and 28 from Maharashtra.

A total of 4,50,782 deaths have been reported so far in the country including 1,39,542 from Maharashtra, 37,885 from Karnataka, 35,783 from Tamil Nadu, 26,258 from Kerala, 25,089 from Delhi, 22,896 from Uttar Pradesh and 18,905 from West Bengal.

The 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 state-wise distribution of figures is subject to further verification and reconciliation.

Over 96.75 crore COVID-19 vaccine doses provided to states, UTs

More than 96.75 crore COVID-19 vaccine doses have been provided to states and UTs so far, the Union Health Ministry said on Monday.

Over 8.43 crore balance and unutilised vaccine doses are still available with the states and UTs to be administered, it said.

The vaccination drive has been ramped up through availability of more vaccines, advance visibility of vaccine availability to states and UTs for enabling better planning by them, and streamlining the vaccine supply chain, the ministry said.

As part of the nationwide vaccination drive, the Centre has been supporting the states and UTs by providing them COVID-19 vaccines free of cost.