COVID: India records 41,965 fresh cases, 460 deaths

New Delhi: India's total tally of cases rose to 3,28,10,845, with 41,965 people testing positive for COVID on Tuesday according to the data updated at 8 am. While active cases have increased to 3,78,181, the death toll has climbed to 4,39,020 with 460 more fatalities, says the data updated by Union health ministry on Wednesday.

The number of active cases has increased to 3,78,181 and comprise 1.15 per cent of the total infections, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate has been recorded at 97.51 per cent, ministry said.

It said that active cases increased by 7,541 in a span of 24 hours.

On Tuesday, 16,06,785 tests were conducted, taking the total cumulative tests done so far for detection of COVID-19 in the country to 52,31,84,293. The daily positivity rate has been recorded 2.61 per cent, the ministry said.

The weekly positivity rate has been recorded at 2.58 per cent. It has been below three per cent for the last 68 days, it said.

The number of people who have recuperated from the disease has increased to 3,19,93,644, while the case fatality rate stands at 1.34 per cent, the data stated.

With 1.33 crore COVID-19 vaccine doses being administered on Tuesday, the highest ever in a single day, the cumulative doses given in the country under the vaccination drive has reached 65.41 crore, 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 crossed two crore cases on May 4 and three crore cases on June 23.

The 460 new fatalities include 115 from Kerala and 104 from Maharashtra, the ministry said.

It said that 4,39,020 deaths have been reported so far in the country, including 1,37,313 from Maharashtra, 37,318 from Karnataka, 34,921 from Tamil Nadu, 25,082 from Delhi, 22,823 from Uttar Pradesh, 20,788 from Kerala and 18,447 from West Bengal.

The health ministry said 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 Union Territory of Andaman and Nicobar Islands reported only one new COVID-19 case, which pushed the tally to 7,566, a health department official said on Wednesday.

The fresh case was detected during testing at the airport. All passengers arriving by flight have to undergo a mandatory RT-PCR test before they are allowed entry into the islands, he said.

The archipelago now has six active COVID-19 cases and all six patients are in the South Andaman district. The other two districts - North and Middle Andaman and Nicobar - are now COVID-19 free, the official said.

The COVID-19 death toll remained at 129 as no new fatality due to the infection was reported in the last 24 hours, the official said.

A total of 7,431 people have recovered from COVID-19 so far in the union territory, he said.