India records 11,919 new coronavirus cases, 470 deaths in 24 hrs

The daily rise in new coronavirus infections has been below 20,000 for 41 straight days and less than 50,000 daily new cases have been reported for 144 consecutive days now.

The national Covid-19 recovery rate was recorded at 98.28%, the highest since March 2020, the Health Ministry said. An increase of 207 cases has been recorded in the active Covid caseload in a span of 24 hours. While the daily recoveries climbed to 11,242.

The daily positivity rate was recorded at 0.97%. It has been less than 2% for the last 45 days. The weekly positivity rate was also recorded at 0.96%. It has been below 2% for the last 54 days, according to the ministry.

The number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 3,38,85,132, while the case fatality rate was recorded at 1.35%.

The 470 new fatalities include 388 from Kerala and 32 from Maharashtra.  Tamil Nadu reported 13 deaths in a day, followed by West Bengal and Karnataka (8 each), Assam (5), Andhra Pradesh (3), Punjab, Odisha, Manipur, Jammu & Kashmir, and Chhattisgarh (2 each), and Himachal Pradesh, Puducherry, and Telangana (1 each). The Health Ministry stressed that more than 70% of the deaths occurred due to comorbidities.

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 had crossed the grim milestone of two crore on May 4 and three crore on June 23.

The cumulative doses administered in the country so far under the nationwide vaccination drive have exceeded 114.46 crore. Out of which, 75,75,49,626 doses were administered as the first dose and 38,62,12,072 doses were administered as a second dose.