New Delhi: A day after Diwali, India reported 12,729 new Covid-19 infections and 221 related fatalities, and the cumulative caseload touched 34,333,754 and the death toll climbed to 459,873, according to the Union ministry of health and family welfare on Friday.
While the active caseload stood at 148,922, an increase of 343 cases from the 148,579 reported on the previous day.
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The health ministry on Thursday noted that the active caseload was the lowest in 253 days. “Active cases account for less than 1 per cent of total cases, currently at 0.43 per cent; lowest since March 2020,” the ministry said in a statement.
As many as 670,847 samples were tested for the disease on Thursday and so far 613,017,614 samples have been tested in the country, according to the Indian Council of Medical Research.
Moreover, the daily recoveries remained less than the new infections on the day with 12,165 people getting discharged from hospitals in the last 24 hours. The total recoveries reached 33,724,959 and the recovery rate stood at 98.23 per cent, the data also showed.
On the vaccination front, 1,077,046,116 doses have been administered to eligible beneficiaries in the country, as per the ministry’s Covid-19 dashboard. It was an increase of 565,276 doses since Thursday.
Meanwhile Kerala recorded the highest number of infections as 7,545 fresh cases were registered and 136 related deaths that raised the caseload to 49.95 lakh and the fatalities to 32,734, the state government said on Thursday. With 5,936 more people recovering from the virus since Wednesday, the total recoveries touched 48,87,350 and the active cases reached 74,552, an official press release said. While Maharashtra recorded 1,141 fresh Covid-19 cases and 32 related fatalities on on Thursday. The state's case recovery rate now stands at 97.6 per cent.