India records less than 30,000 daily COVID-19 cases after 132 days

India on Tuesday recorded 29,689 fresh COVID-19 cases after 132 days while its active caseload fell below 4,00,000 after 124 days, according to Union health ministry data.

Fresh cases pushed India's overall Covid-19 tally to 3,14,40,951, while the death toll climbed to 4,21,382 with 415 daily fatalities, the health ministry said. The active cases have declined to 3,98,100 and now comprise 1.27 per cent of the total infections.

The 'R' value is also worryingly high. The latest data indicates it is 0.99 - nearly at the danger mark of 1.0. Equally worrying is the steady increase over the past few weeks - from 0.85 four weeks to 0.95 last week. An 'R' of 1.0 means one person will, on average, infect one other person. It needs to be below that mark to slow a pandemic

Top five states which have registered maximum cases are Kerala with 11,586 cases, followed by Maharashtra with 4,877 cases, Tamil Nadu with 1,785 cases, Odisha with 1,637 cases and Andhra Pradesh with 1,627 cases. These five states account for 72.45% of the new Covid-19 cases, with Kerala alone responsible for 39.02% of the new cases.

Maximum death cases were reported in Kerala (135), followed by Odisha with 62 daily deaths.

The increase in cases in Kerala takes place after the government relaxed lockdown for three days to allow people to celebrate Eid. The decision was criticised by the Supreme Court, which declined to overturn the order because two days had already passed. Earlier the court said Uttar Pradesh could not hold the Kanwar Yatra.

Maharashtra - which was the epicentre of the pandemic in India - reported fewer than 5,000 cases and only 53 deaths in 24 hours. Active cases in the state are now 92,088 - a steady decline from the seven lakh in end-April and the lowest since early March.

There is an increase in cases in the northeast - fuelled by the 'delta' variant. Assam reported 1,528 new cases, Manipur 989, Meghalaya 569, Arunachal Pradesh 490 and Tripura 458. Several states have issued fresh lockdown orders to contain infections.

As many as 17,20,110 COVID-19 tests were conducted on Monday, taking the total number of tests conducted so far to 45,91,64,121.

The daily positivity rate has declined to 1.73 per cent. The weekly positivity rate was recorded at 2.33 per cent, the ministry data stated.