India records 37,593 new cases; active cases rise

India today logged 37,593 fresh COVID-19 cases, a whopping 47.6 per cent higher than yesterday's figure (25,467). The country also reported 648 deaths, a huge jump from the 354 deaths reported a day before.

The total number of coronavirus cases in the country has climbed to 3,25,12,366 and the death toll has reached 4,35,758. As many as 3,17,54,281 people have recovered from the disease.

With 24,296 new cases, Kerala continues to lead the states in daily Covid cases. The state also reported 173 deaths, the most deaths in a day by any state after Maharashtra (288).

Tamil Nadu with 1,585 cases, Karnataka with 1,259 and Andhra Pradesh with 1,248 were other southern states with over 1,000 Covid cases in a day. Telangana reported 389 Covid cases.

Maharashtra, leading the states in overall cases, reported 4,355 cases in a day. It also reported 288 deaths.

Gujarat (with 14 Covid cases), Rajasthan (10), Bihar (9), Madhya Pradesh (5) - the four big states - reported zero Covid deaths in a day.

Delhi, the national capital, reported 151 fresh Covid and zero deaths over a span of 24 hours. The cumulative COVID-19 death count stands at 25,079 and the case fatality rate at 1.74 per cent.

The health ministry said the total number of vaccine doses administered till date has reached 59,55,04,593.

More than 58.07 crore (58,07,64,210) vaccine doses have been provided to States/UTs so far. More than 3.62 crore (3,62,24,601) balance and unutilized COVID vaccine doses are still available with the States/UTs to be administered.

Coronavirus in India may be entering some kind of stage of endemicity where there is low or moderate level of transmission going on, Chief Scientist of the World Health Organisation Dr Soumya Swaminathan said.

The endemic stage is when a population learns to live with a virus. It's very different from the epidemic stage when the virus overwhelms a population.

India's Covid-19 tally had crossed the 20-lakh mark on August 7, 2020, 30 lakh on August 23, 40 lakh on September 5 and 50 lakh on September 16. It went past 60 lakh on September 28, 70 lakh on October 11, crossed 80 lakh on October 29, 90 lakh on November 20 and surpassed the one-crore mark on December 19.