New Delhi: India witnessed a sharp spike in Coronavirus cases as the daily surge in infections crossed the 18,000 mark on Wednesday. The country logged 18,819 fresh cases and 39 deaths, in the last 24 hours, according to the data update by the Health ministry. With the addition of new infections, the positivity rate has surged to 4.16%.
The Health Ministry also said that the active covid cases have now surged to 1,04,555 from 99,602 and the total case tally of the country now stands at 4,34,52,164. India's total death toll climbed to 5,25,116 after the addition of fresh fatalities.
The active cases crossed the one lakh mark again after 122 days. The active cases increased to 1,04,555 comprising 0.24 per cent of the total infections, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate was recorded at 98.55 per cent, the ministry said.
An increase of 4,953 cases has been recorded in the active COVID-19 caseload in a span of 24 hours.
The weekly positivity rate at 3.72 per cent, according to the ministry.
The number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 4,28,22,493, while the case fatality rate was 1.21 per cent. According to the ministry, 197.61 crore doses of Covid vaccine have been administered in the country so far under the nationwide COVID-19 vaccination drive.
Bengal reports over 1000 Covid cases
West Bengal reported over a thousand new COVID-19 cases on Wednesday for the first time in more than four months as 1,424 people tested positive, the Health Department said The positivity rate jumped to 12.74 per cent from Tuesday's 9.92 per cent, it said.
The new cases were detected after testing 11,176 samples.
There are 5,885 active COVID-19 cases in the state at present.
The state also reported two new deaths, taking the toll to 21,218.