India reports 21,257 new Covid-19 cases and 271 deaths in 24 hours

India reported 21,257 new COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours, which is just five per cent lower than yesterday's figure when the country reported 22,431 cases. The country also reported 271 deaths due to coronavirus.

The daily positivity rate has been recorded at 1.53 per cent. It has been less than 3 per cent for the last 39 days, according to the ministry data

The centre has issued a warning in view of the festive season, asking people not to drop their guard against Covid. The government has asked people to ensure that they "share happiness but not the virus".

The top five states which registered the maximum number of Covid-19 cases are Kerala with 12,288 cases, followed by Maharashtra with 2,681 cases, Tamil Nadu with 1,390 cases, Mizoram with 1,080 cases and West Bengal with 771 cases.

As many as 85.67 per cent of the new cases were reported from these five states, with Kerala alone responsible for 57.81 per cent of the new cases.

Maximum casualties were reported in Kerala (141), followed by Maharashtra with 49 daily deaths.

As of Friday morning, India's recovery rate stands at 97.96 per cent even as a total of 24,963 patients recovered from the Covid-19 infection in the last 24 hours, which brings the total recoveries to 3,32,25,221 across the country.

One-and-a-half years after India suspended tourist visas in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Centre on Thursday announced it will begin issuing visas from October 15, although tourists will be allowed entry into India only in chartered flights for a month.

Those who want to visit India on "bubble flights" or scheduled commercial flights would have to wait until November 15, the government said.

With the administration of 50,17,753 vaccine doses in the last 24 hours, India's Covid-19 vaccination coverage crossed the landmark of 93Cr(93,17,17,191) as per provisional reports till 7 am today. This has been achieved through 90,68,525 sessions.