India reports 34,973 new coronavirus cases, 4.5% lower than yesterday

India recorded 33,376 new cases of coronavirus disease (Covid-19) in the last 24 hours, which pushed the nationwide tally to 33,208,330, while the death toll climbed to 442,317 with 308 daily fatalities, according to the Union ministry of health and family welfare on Saturday.

The number of deaths climbed to 4,42,009 with 260 fresh fatalities, according to the data updated at 8 am.

The active cases comprise 1.18 per cent of the total infections, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate was recorded at 97.49 per cent, the ministry said.

Kerala added 25,010 cases and 177 deaths in the last 24 hours, taking the caseload to 43,34,704 and the number of deaths to 22,303. The positivity rate rose to 16.53 per cent on Friday after testing 1,51,317 samples in the last 24 hours.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday chaired a high-level meeting to review the Covid-19 situation and progress of the vaccination drive in the country and was briefed about the concentration of cases "in a few geographies".

In Friday's meeting, the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) said in a statement that Modi was briefed about the concentration of cases "in a few geographies, districts with high test positivity as well as the week-on-week test positivity rate in the country".

The cumulative number of COVID-19 vaccine doses administered in the country has crossed 73 crore. More than 56 lakh vaccine doses were administered till 7 pm on Friday.

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.

India crossed the grim milestone of two crore on May 4 and three crore on June 23.