At 1.67 lakh cases, India sees slight dip in daily Covid tally

India on Tuesday recorded 1,67,059 new Covid cases in the past 24 hours, 20 per cent lower than yesterday's 2.09 lakh figure. A whopping 1,192 fresh fatalities were also reported in the same time period.

The new Covid cases recorded today took the total infection tally in the country to 4,14,69,499, as India continues to rank the second worst-hit by Covid in the world, following the US.

The top five states that registered the maximum new cases in 24 hours on Tuesday are Kerala with 42,154 cases, followed by Karnataka with 24,172 cases, Tamil Nadu with 19,280 cases, Maharashtra with 15,140 cases and Madhya Pradesh with 8,062 cases.

Of the new cases, 65.13 per cent were reported in these five states, with Kerala alone responsible for 25.23 per cent of them.

The high daily death count today, taking total deaths in the country to 4.96 lakh, includes a backlog of 638 deaths recorded in Kerala.

The daily positivity rate, which is the share of coronavirus tests that return positive -- considered to be a key marker of the pandemic's status -- has dropped to 11.6 per cent from 15.7 per cent, while the weekly positivity rate was recorded at 15.25 per cent.

India's active caseload currently stands at 17.43 lakh cases, comprising 4.2 per cent of total infections in the country. The national COVID-19 recovery rate is presently at 94.6 per cent.

In the last 24 hours, India administered a total of 61,45,767 Covid-19 vaccine doses, bringing the total tally of doses administered to 1,66,68,48,204.

Meanwhile, a total of 14,28,672 samples were tested for Covid-19 in the same 24 hours.