India reports 13,091 new Covid-19 cases, 340 deaths

New Delhi: India on Thursday registered 13,091 fresh Covid-19 cases and 340 deaths, as per the Union Health Ministry's latest datatbase.

With the new fatalities, the nationwide death toll has increased to 4,62,189, according to the Ministry.

The 340 new fatalities include 259 from Kerala and 17 from Maharashtra. Of the 259 deaths, 48 were reported over the last few days and 211 were designated as Covid deaths after receiving appeals based on the new guidelines of the Centre and Supreme Court directions, a Kerala state government release said on Wednesday.

The ministry stressed that more than 70 per cent of the deaths occurred due to comorbidities. "Our figures are being reconciled with the Indian Council of Medical Research," the ministry said on its website, adding that state-wise distribution of figures is subject to further verification and reconciliation.

While several countries have begun inoculating a section of the population with booster shots, Bharat Biotech CMD Krishna Ella said that a booster dose would be ideal at six months after receiving the second dose of the anti-Covid vaccine. A final decision was up to the government, he added.

The recovery of 13,878 patients in the last 24 hours has increased the cumulative tally to 3,38,00,925. Consequently, India's recovery rate stands at 98.25 per cent, the highest since March 2020.

The active caseload at 1,38,556 is the lowest in 266 days.

Active cases presently constitute 0.40 per cent of the country's total positive cases, the lowest since March 2020.

Also in the same period, a total of 11,89,470 tests were conducted across the country, increasing the cumulative total to 61.99 crore.

Meanwhile, the weekly positivity rate at 1.18 per cent has remained less than 2 per cent for the last 48 days now.

The daily positivity rate stands at 1.10 per cent, which has also remained below 2 per cent for the last 38 days and less than 3 per cent for 73 consecutive days now.

With the administration of 57,54,817 vaccine doses in the last 24 hours, India's overall Covid inoculation coverage has reached 110 crore as of Thursday morning.

This has been achieved through 1,12,38,854 sessions.