India records 12,729 new Covid-19 cases, 221 deaths in 24 hours

New Delhi: India recorded a single-day rise of 12,729 new COVID-19 cases today, taking the country's infection tally to 3,43,33,754.

While, the country's active cases have declined to 1,48,922, the lowest since March 2020, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Friday. India's Covid-19 related deaths have increased to 4,59,873, after single day fatalities rose to 221.

The maximum casualties were reported in Kerala (136), followed by Maharashtra with 32 daily deaths.

Kerala, with 7,545 cases, continues to be among the top five states that registered the maximum number of Covid-19 cases. This was followed by Maharashtra with 1,141 cases, Tamil Nadu with 945 cases, West Bengal with 918 cases and Mizoram with 508 cases.

As many as 86.85 per cent of the new cases were reported from these five states, with Kerala alone responsible for 59.27 per cent of the new cases.

Most of the other states have continued to witness a dip in daily cases for the past two months. As a result, several state governments eased Covid-related restrictions amid the festival season. Besides, schools have reopened in Delhi, Maharashtra, Karnataka, and other Indian states.

The daily rise in new coronavirus infections has been below 20,000 for 28 straight days and less than 50,000 daily new cases have been reported for 131 consecutive days now.

A total of 12,165 people recovered in past day. Altogether, 3.37 crore people have recovered from the Covid infection in the country to date. India's Covid-19 recovery rate stands at 98.23%.

India's daily positivity rate was recorded at 1.90%. It has been less than 2% for the last 32 days. The weekly positivity rate was also recorded at 1.25%. It has been below 2% for the last 42 days, according to the Health Ministry.

India has, so far, administered 1,07,70,46,116 Covid-19 vaccine doses, with 5,65,276 doses being given in the last 24 hours. A total of 6,70,847 samples were tested in the last 24 hours.