COVID: India records 30,256 fresh cases, 295 fatalities

New Delhi: India's total tally of COVID-19 cases rose to 3,34,78,419, with 30,256 people testing positive for coronavirus infection, according to the Union health ministry data updated on Monday.

While the active cases declined to 3,18,181, the lowest in 1,823 days, the death toll climbed to 4,45,133 with 295 more fatalities, according to the data updated at 8 am. The 295 fresh fatalities include 152 from Kerala, and 49 from Maharashtra.

Of the 4,45,133 deaths reported so far in the country, 1,38,518 are from Maharashtra, 37,603 from Karnataka, 35,337 from Tamil Nadu, 25,085 from Delhi, 23,591 from Kerala, 22,887 from Uttar Pradesh, and 18,652 from West Bengal.

The health ministry stressed that more than 70 per cent of the deaths occurred due to comorbidities.

The active cases have declined to 3,18,181 comprising 0.95 per cent of the total infections, the lowest since March 2020, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate was recorded at 97.72 per cent, the health ministry said.

A reduction of 13,977 cases has been recorded in the active COVID-19 caseload in a span of 24 hours.

Also, 11,77,607 tests were conducted on Sunday taking the total cumulative tests conducted so far for detection of COVID-19 in the country to 55,36,21,766.

The daily positivity rate was recorded at 2.57 per cent. It has been less than 3 per cent for the last 21 days.

The weekly positivity rate was recorded at 2.07 per cent. It has been below 3 per cent for the last 87 days, according to the health ministry.

The number of people who have recuperated from the disease has surged to 3,27,15,105, while the case fatality rate was recorded at 1.33 per cent, it said.

The cumulative doses administered in the country so far under the nationwide vaccination drive has exceeded 80.85 crore, according to the ministry.

"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

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.

Meanwhile, the global coronavirus caseload has topped 228.4 million, while the deaths have surged to more than 4.69 million and vaccinations soared to over 5.90 billion, according to the Johns Hopkins University.

In its latest update on Monday morning, the University's Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) revealed that the current global caseload, death toll and vaccination tally stood at 228,497,223, 4,691,285 and 5,905,689,911, respectively.

The US continues to be the worst-hit country with the world's highest number of cases and deaths at 42,087,282 and 673,763, respectively, according to the CSSE.

In terms of infections, India follows in the second place with 33,448,163 cases.

The other worst countries with over 3 million cases are Brazil (21,239,783), the UK (7,464,791), Russia (7,170,069), France (7,043,875), Turkey (6,847,229), Iran (5,424,835), Argentina (5,239,232), Colombia (4,941,064), Spain (4,929,546), Italy (4,636,111), Indonesia (4,190,763), Germany (4,149,832) and Mexico (3,564,694), the CSSE figures showed.

Nations with a death toll of over 100,000 are Brazil (590,752), India (444,838), Mexico (271,303), Peru (199,069), Russia (194,671), Indonesia (140,468), the UK (135,539), Italy (130,310), Colombia (125,895), Iran (117,182), France (116,696) and Argentina (114,428).