COVID: Indias' active cases lowest in 196 days

New Delhi: India logged 26,727 new coronavirus infections taking the total tally of COVID-19 cases to 3,37,66,707, while the active cases declined to 2,75,224, the lowest in 196 days, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Friday.

The death toll climbed to 4,48,339 with 277 fresh fatalities, according to the data updated at 8 am.

The 277 new fatalities include 122 from Kerala and 56 from Maharashtra.

A total of 4,48,339 deaths have been reported so far in the country including 1,39,067 from Maharashtra,37,794 from Karnataka, 35,578 from Tamil Nadu, 25,087 each from Delhi and Kerala, 22,892 from Uttar Pradesh, and 18,793 from West Bengal.

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

The active cases comprise 0.82 per cent of the total infections, the lowest since March 2020, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate was recorded at 97.86 per cent, the highest since March 2020, the ministry said.

A decrease of 1,796 cases has been recorded in the active COVID-19 caseload in a span of 24 hours.

As many as 15,20,899 tests were conducted on Thursday taking the total cumulative tests conducted so far for detection of COVID-19 in the country to 57,04,77,338.

The daily positivity rate was recorded at 1.76 per cent. It has been less than three per cent for the last 32 days. The weekly positivity rate was recorded at 1.70 per cent. It has been below three per cent for the last 98 days, according to the ministry.

The number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 3,30,43,144, while the case fatality rate was recorded at 1.33 per cent.

The cumulative doses administered in the country so far under the nationwide COVID-19 vaccination drive has exceeded 89 crores.

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 crores on May 4 and three crores 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 233.7 million, while the deaths have surged to more than 4.78 million and vaccinations soared to over 6.22 billion, according to the Johns Hopkins University.

In its latest update on Friday morning, the University's Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) revealed that the current global caseload and death toll stood at 233,703,468 and 4,782,043 respectively, while the total vaccine doses administered were 6,227,425,133.

The US continues to be the worst-hit country with the world's highest number of cases and deaths at 43,459,200 and 697,840 respectively, according to the CSSE. In terms of infections, India follows in second place with 33,739,980 cases.

The other worst countries with over 3 million cases are Brazil (21,427,073), the UK (7,843,887), Russia (7,401,104), France (7,106,028), Turkey (7,124,654), Iran (5,587,040), Argentina (5,256,902), Colombia (4,957,277), Spain (4,959,091), Italy (4,672,355), Indonesia (4,215,104), Germany (4,239,773) and Mexico (3,655,395), the CSSE figures showed.

Nations with a death toll of over 100,000 are Brazil (596,749), India (448,062), Mexico (276,973), Peru (199,367), Russia (203,549), Indonesia (141,939), the UK (137,043), Italy (130,921), Colombia (126,299), Iran (120,428), France (117,474) and Argentina (115,179).