India reports 2,380 new coronavirus cases, 56 deaths in 24 hrs

New Delhi: India on Thursday reported 2,380 Covid-19 cases and 56 deaths, according to the Union Health Ministry's latest database.

India's total tally of COVID-19 cases is now at 4,30,49,974, while the active cases stand at 13,433.

The death toll climbed to 5,22,062 with fresh fatalities, the data updated at 8 am stated.

The active cases comprise 0.03 per cent of the total infections, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate remained at 98.76 percent, the ministry said. An increase of 1,093 cases has been recorded in the active COVID-19 caseload in a span of 24 hours.

India's effective reproduction number (R-value) for Covid-19, an indicator of how quickly a disease is spreading in the population, has increased to over 1 for the first time since mid-January, during the third wave of the pandemic. The R-value, which saw a steady increase over the last few weeks, was 1.07 for April 12-18, according to Sitabhra Sinha, a researcher from Chennai's Institute of Mathematical Sciences who has been tracking the country's R-value since the beginning of the pandemic. It was 0.93 the previous week.

The daily positivity rate was recorded as 0.53 percent and the weekly positivity rate as 0.43 percent, according to the ministry.

The number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 4,25,14,479, while the case fatality rate was 1.21 percent. The cumulative doses administered in the country so far under the nationwide COVID-19 vaccination drive have exceeded 187.07 crores.

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.

The country crossed the grim milestone of two crore on May 4 and three crore on June 23 last year. The 56 new fatalities include 53 from Kerala and one each from Delhi, Mizoram and Odisha. A total of 5,22,062 deaths have been reported so far in the country including 1,47,830 from Maharashtra, 68,702 from Kerala, 40,057 from Karnataka, 38,025 from Tamil Nadu, 26,161 from Delhi, 23,502 from Uttar Pradesh, and 21,200 from West Bengal.

The ministry stressed that more than 70 percent 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 the state-wise distribution of figures is subject to further verification and reconciliation.