India logs 1.49 lakh new Covid-19 cases in 24 hours, positivity rate at 9.27%

India reported 1.49 lakh new Covid cases today, 13% lower than yesterday. The positivity rate fell to 9.2%.The active cases constitute 3.42 per cent of the total infections, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate decreased to 95.39 per cent.

Since December, the number of Covid cases has been rising rapidly due to the new variant Omicron. India's active caseload currently stands at 14,35,569.

Of the new cases registered on Friday, the five states which logged maximum cases are Kerala with 42,677 cases, followed by Karnataka with 16,436 cases, Maharashtra with 15,252 cases, Tamil Nadu with 11,993 cases and Rajasthan with 8,073 cases.

More than 60 per cent of the new cases were reported from these five states, with Kerala alone responsible for 28.57 per cent of the new cases.

There were 1,072 Covid-related deaths in the last 24 hours. India's death count from COVID-19 crossed 500,000 today.

Kerala, with less than 3 per cent of India's 1.35 billion population, accounts for nearly 11 per cent of the total deaths reported in the country.

In the last few months, several states have updated the number of deaths, some under pressure from the Supreme Court. In most instances, authorities said there were lapses due to delayed registrations and other administrative errors.

2,46,674 recoveries were recorded in the last 24 hours, taking total recoveries in India to 4,00,17,088.

India's daily positivity rate fell from 11 per cent to 9.27 per cent today. Positivity rate is the number of people who test positive out of every 100 tests conducted. The weekly positivity rate has come down to 12.03 per cent.

India conducted 16,11,666 Covid tests in the last 24 hours.

The active cases constitute 3.42 per cent of the total infections, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate decreased to 95.39 per cent, the health ministry said.