Covid Update: India Reports Over 18K Fresh Cases, Positivity Rate Above 5%

The death toll has climbed to 5,26,689 with 40 fatalities which include eight deaths reconciled by Kerala, the data updated at 8 am stated.

Covid testing in India

New Delhi: With 18,738 new coronavirus infections being reported in a day, India's tally of COVID-19 cases has risen to 4,41,45,732 while the active cases have increased to 1,34,933, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Sunday.

The death toll has climbed to 5,26,689 with 40 fatalities which includes eight deaths reconciled by Kerala, the data updated at 8 am stated.

The active cases comprise 0.31 per cent of the total infections, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate was recorded at 98.50 per cent, the ministry said.

An increase of 140 cases has been recorded in the active COVID-19 caseload in a span of 24 hours.

The daily positivity rate was recorded at 5.02 per cent and the weekly positivity rate at 4.63 per cent, according to the ministry.

The number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 4,34,84,110, while the case fatality rate was recorded at 1.19 per cent.  According to the ministry, 206.21 crore doses of Covid vaccine have been administered in the country so far under the nationwide COVID-19 vaccination drive.  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.

The country crossed the grim milestone of two crore on May 4 and three crore on June 23 last year. It crossed the four-crore mark on January 25 this year.

The new fatalities include nine from Maharashtra, four each from Chhattisgarh and West Bengal, three from Manipur, two from Madhya Pradesh and one each from Bihar, Delhi, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Kerala, Meghalaya, Odisha, Punjab and Tripura.