With 5,921 people testing positive for the infection in a day, India’s COVID-19 case tally now stands at 4,29,57,477 and that of active cases at 63,878, showed the Union Health Ministry data updated on Saturday.
The death toll from the pandemic has climbed to 5,14,878 with 289 fatalities being reported in a span of 24 hours, according to the data updated at 8 am.
The count of daily COVID-19 cases has remained below one lakh for 27 consecutive days now.
The active cases comprise 0.17 per cent of the total infections, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate has further improved to 98.65 per cent, the ministry said.
A reduction of 6,019 cases has been recorded in the active infection count in a span of 24 hours.
The daily positivity rate was recorded at 0.63 per cent and the weekly positivity rate at 0.84 per cent, according to the ministry.
The number of people who have recuperated from the disease has surged to 4,23,78,721, while the case fatality rate was recorded as 1.20 per cent, the data showed.
The cumulative number of doses administered in the country so far under the nationwide COVID-19 vaccination drive has exceeded 178.55 crore.
India’s COVID-19 infection 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; 80 lakh on October 29; 90 lakh on November 20 and the one-crore mark on December 19.
The country crossed the grim milestones of two crore cases on May 4 last year and three crore on June 23.
The 289 new fatalities include 179 from Kerala and 9 from Maharashtra.
A total of 5,14,878 deaths have been reported so far in the country including 1,43,727 from Maharashtra, 66,012 from Kerala, 39,985 from Karnataka, 38,011 from Tamil Nadu, 26,134 from Delhi, 23,471 from Uttar Pradesh and 21,178 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. ( PTI )
