COVID: India records 37,875 new cases, 369 fatalities

New Delhi: India logged 37,875 new cases of coronavirus infection taking the total tally of COVID-19 cases to 3,30,96,718, while the active cases declined to 3,91,256, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Wednesday.

According to the data updated at 8 am today, the death toll climbed to 4,41,411 with 369 fresh fatalities in which 189 from Kerala, and 86 from Maharashtra.

The active cases comprise 1.18 per cent of the total infections, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate was recorded at 97.48 per cent, the ministry said.

A decrease of 1,608 cases has been recorded in the active COVID-19 caseload in a span of 24 hours.

As many as 17,53,745 tests were conducted on Tuesday taking the total cumulative tests conducted so far for detection of COVID-19 in the country to 53,49,43,093.

The daily positivity rate was recorded as 2.16 per cent. It has been less than three per cent for last nine days The weekly positivity rate was recorded at 2.49 per cent. It has been below three per cent for the last 75 days, according to the health ministry.

The number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 3,22,64,051, while the case fatality rate was recorded at 1.33 per cent.

The cumulative doses administered in the country so far under the nationwide vaccination drive has exceeded 70.75 crore according to the ministry.

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.

A total of 4,41,411 deaths have been reported so far in the country including 1,37,897 from Maharashtra, 37,441 from Karnataka, 35,055 from Tamil Nadu, 25,083 from Delhi, 22,863 from Uttar Pradesh, 21,820 from Kerala and 18,522 from West Bengal.

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

Meanwhile, the global coronavirus caseload has topped 221.8 million, while the deaths have surged to more than 4.58 million and vaccinations soared to over 5.52 billion, according to the Johns Hopkins University.

In its latest update on Wednesday morning, the University's Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) revealed that the current global caseload is 221,868,505, death toll stands at 4,585,508 and vaccination tally rises to 5,527,333,621.

The US continues to be the worst-hit country with the world's highest number of cases and deaths at 40,279,567 and 650,511 respectively, according to the CSSE.

In terms of infections, India follows in the second place with 33,058,843 cases.

The other worst countries with over 3 million cases are Brazil (20,914,237), the UK (7,089,051), Russia (6,946,922 ), France (6,938,866), Turkey (6,542,624), Argentina (5,211,801), Iran (5,184,124), Colombia (4,921,410), Spain (4,892,640), Italy (4,574,787), Indonesia (4,133,433), Germany (4,039,667) and Mexico (3,449,295), the CSSE figures showed.

In terms of deaths, Brazil comes second with 584,108 fatalities.

Nations with a death toll of over 100,000 are India (441,042), Mexico (264,541), Peru (198,523), Russia (185,447), Indonesia (137,156), the UK (133,808), Italy (129,638), Colombia (125,378), France (115,680), Argentina (112,851) and Iran (111,892).