COVID: India's active cases lowest in 184 days

New Delhi: India added 26,115 new cases of coronavirus infection in a single day taking the total tally to 3,35,04,534, while the active cases declined to 3,09,575, the lowest in 184 days, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Tuesday.

The death toll climbed to 4,45,385 with 252 fresh fatalities, according to the data updated at 8 am. The 252 fresh fatalities include 92 from Kerala, 31 from Punjab, and 28 from Maharashtra.

A total of 4,45,385 deaths have been reported so far in the country including 1,38,546 from Maharashtra, 37,627 From Karnataka, 35,360 from Tamil Nadu, 25,085 from Delhi, 23,683 from Kerala, 22,887 from Uttar Pradesh, and 18,664 from West Bengal.

The ministry stressed that more than 70 percent of the deaths occurred due to comorbidities.

The active cases comprise 0.92 percent of the total infections, the lowest since March 2020, the ministry said, adding the national COVID-19 recovery rate was recorded at 97.75 percent.

A reduction of 8,606 cases has been recorded in the active COVID-19 caseload in a span of 24 hours.

As many as 14,13,951 tests were conducted on Monday taking the total cumulative tests conducted so far for detection of COVID-19 in the country to 55,50,35,717.

The daily positivity rate was recorded at 1.85 percent. It has been less than three percent for the last 22 days. The weekly positivity rate was recorded at 2.08 percent. It has been below three percent for the last 88 days, it said.

The number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 3,27,49,574, while the case fatality rate was recorded at 1.33 percent.

The cumulative doses administered in the country so far under the nationwide COVID-19 vaccination drive have exceeded 81.85 crores with 96.46 lakh doses being given on Monday.

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.

"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 229 million, while the deaths have surged to more than 4.69 million and vaccinations soared to over 5.93 billion, according to Johns Hopkins University.

In its latest update on Tuesday morning, the University's Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) revealed that the current global caseload, death toll, and vaccination tally stood at 229,031,974, 4,699,187, and 5,935,372,422, respectively.

The US continues to be the worst-hit country with the world's highest number of cases and deaths at 42,286,531 and 676,059, respectively, according to the CSSE.

In terms of infections, India follows in second place with 33,478,419 cases.

The other worst countries with over 3 million cases are Brazil (21,247,667), the UK (7,500,513), Russia (7,189,445), France (7,045,422), Turkey (6,874,917), Iran (5,442,232), Argentina (5,241,394), Colombia (4,942,249), Spain (4,935,534), Italy (4,638,516), Indonesia (4,192,695), Germany (4,155,160) and Mexico (3,569,677), the CSSE figures showed.

Nations with a death toll of over 100,000 are Brazil (590,955), India (445,133), Mexico (271,503), Peru (199,036), Russia (195,438), Indonesia (140,634), the UK (135,588), Italy (130,354), Colombia (125,924), Iran (117,526), France (116,759) and Argentina (114,518).