India records 1.27 lakh new cases, positivity rate drops to 7.9%

India on Saturday reported 1,27,952 new Covid cases, 14% lower than yesterday. The positivity rate fell to 7.9%.The active cases constitute 3.16 per cent of the total infections, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate decreased to 95.64 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 13,31,648.

Top five states which have registered maximum cases are Kerala with 38,684 cases, followed by Karnataka with 14,950 cases, Maharashtra with 13,840 cases, Tamil Nadu with 9,916 cases, and Madhya Pradesh with 6,516 cases.

These five states reported 65.57 per cent of the new cases, with Kerala alone responsible for 30.23 per cent of the new cases.

There were 1,059 new Covid-related deaths in the last 24 hours. The death count from COVID-19 crossed 500,000 on Friday, a level many health experts say was breached last year but obscured by inaccurate surveys and unaccounted dead in the hinterlands, where millions remain vulnerable to the disease. At least 2,30,814 recoveries in the last 24 hours took the total number of recoveries to 4,02,47,902.

The daily Covid positivity rate stands at 7.98 per cent while the weekly positivity rate stands at 11.21 per cent.

The new cases were recorded after 16,03,856 tests were conducted in the last 24 hours. A total of 73.79 crore Covid tests have been conducted in India till now.

Nearly 169 crore COVID-19 vaccine doses have so far been administered in the country, the health ministry said. Over 42 lakh (42,95,142) vaccine doses were administered till 7 pm on Friday.