COVID: India logs 35,662 fresh cases, 281 deaths

New Delhi: India's overall infection tally has increased to 3,34,17,390, with 35,662 more people testing positive for COVID-19, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Saturday.

The death toll due to the disease has climbed to 4,44,529, with 281 more fatalities being recorded, it said. The data shows that the 281 new fatalities include 131 deaths from Kerala and 67 from Maharashtra. according to the Health Ministry, more than 70 percent of the deaths occurred due to co-morbidities.

The number of active cases has risen to 3,40,639, comprising 1.02 percent of the total infections, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate has been recorded at 97.65 percent, according to the data updated by the ministry at 8 am.

It said that active cases in the country increased by 1,583 cases in 24 hours.

Also, 14,48,833 tests were conducted on Friday, taking the total cumulative tests conducted so far to 55,07,80,273, it said.

The daily positivity rate has been recorded at 2.46 percent. It has been less than three percent for the last 19 days, according to the data.

The weekly positivity rate has been recorded at 2.02 percent. It has been below three percent for the last 85 days, the ministry said.

The number of people who have recuperated from the disease is 3,26,32,222, while the case fatality rate has been recorded at 1.33 percent, it said.

The cumulative doses administered in the country so far under the vaccination drive have exceeded 79.42 crores, according to the ministry.

India's COVID-19 tally had crossed the 20-lakh mark on August 7 last year, 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 last year.

India recorded two crore cases on May 4 and three crore cases on June 23.

It said that 4,44,529 deaths have been reported so far in the country, including 1,38,389 from Maharashtra, 37,573 from Karnataka, 35,288 from Tamil Nadu, 25,085 from Delhi, 23,296 from Kerala, 22,887 from Uttar Pradesh, and 18,629 from West Bengal.

"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

Meanwhile, the global coronavirus caseload has topped 225.7 million, while the deaths have surged to more than 4.67 million and vaccinations soared to over 5.85 billion, according to Johns Hopkins University.

In its latest update on Saturday morning, the University's Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) revealed that the current global caseload, death toll and vaccination tally stood at 227,544,137, 4,678,012 and 5,856,927,079, respectively.

The US continues to be the worst-hit country with the world's highest number of cases and deaths at 41,946,462 and 672,192, respectively, according to the CSSE.

In terms of infections, India follows in second place with 33,381,728 cases.

The other worst countries with over 3 million cases are Brazil (21,080,219), the UK (7,405,774), Russia (7,130,245), France (7,029,959), Turkey (6,794,670), Iran (5,396,013), Argentina (5,237,159), Colombia (4,937,596), Spain (4,929,546), Italy (4,627,699), Indonesia (4,185,144), Germany (4,137,062) and Mexico (3,549,229), the CSSE figures showed.

Nations with a death toll of over 100,000 are Brazil (589,573), India (444,248), Mexico (270,348), Peru (198,891), Russia (193,111), Indonesia (140,138), the UK (135,312), Italy (130,233), Colombia (125,826), France (116,618), Iran (116,436) and Argentina (114,286).