India on Saturday saw a single-day rise of 38,628 new coronavirus cases, taking the infection tally to 3,18,95,385, while the death toll climbed to 4,27,371 with 617 fresh fatalities, according to the Union health ministry database.
The active cases have declined to 4,12,153 and comprise 1.29 per cent of the total infections, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate was recorded at 97.37 per cent, the data updated at 8 am showed.
A decrease of 2,006 cases has been recorded in the active COVID-19 caseload in a span of 24 hours.
Kerala, which has been leading states in most number of daily Covid cases, today reported 19,948 cases. The state has been consistently reporting over 20,000 cases for many days. It also reported 187 deaths.
Andhra Pradesh with 2,209 Covid cases, Tamil Nadu with 1,985, Karnataka with 1,805 are other southern states with high number of daily cases. Telangana reported 577 cases in a day.
Maharashtra, the worst-hit state in terms of overall Covid cases, today logged 5,539 cases, a big drop from the 9,026 it registered yesterday. The state also reported 187 deaths.
Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar - the three big states - reported zero Covid deaths over a 24-hour span.
With 975 Covid cases, Assam leads the northeastern states with most number of cases in a day. It is followed by Mizoram (722), Manipur (742), Meghalaya (515).
"Coronavirus pandemic the biggest disaster faced by humanity in the last 100 years," Prime Minister Narendra Modi noted during interaction with Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana beneficiaries today.
More than 50 crore vaccine doses have been in the country with around 43.29 lakh doses administered only on Friday. Talking about the pace of vaccination, Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya said it took India 85 days to vaccinate 10 crore people. "India then took 45 days to touch the figure of 20 crore. In another 24 days, the figure reached 40 crore and in another 20 days we surpassed the figure of 50 crore," Mandaviya said.