New COVID-19 cases hover below 10k mark for fifth day in a row; active infections under 70k

Representative image

Fresh COVID-19 cases in India stayed under the 10,000 mark for the fifth day, down 2.5 per cent over 24 hours at 6,396 even as active infections kept falling.

The new cases take the total confirmed tally in the country to 4,29,51,556.

A total of 201 COVID-19 deaths were also registered in the past 24 hours, taking the toll due to the infectious disease to 5,14,388. Kerala continued to report backlog deaths as part of its data reconciliation exercise, registering 88 backlog deaths.

It also registered the most deaths at 73 followed by Maharashtra (12) in the 24-hour period.

The active COVID-19 caseload in the country now stands at 69,897—down over nine per cent from the previous day and 0.16 per cent of the total confirmed cases. Active coronavirus cases in Kerala, which has the highest caseload in the country, are now under 20,000.

The daily test positivity rate in India stood at 0.69 per cent, while the rolling average of the weekly positivity rate came down to 0.90 per cent.

Bihar and Meghalaya were the only two states which reported a nominal rise in active coronavirus infections.

States cumulatively registered 13, 450 recoveries in the last 24 hours, raising total recoveries to 4,23,67,070 with the recovery rate reaching 98.64 per cent.

The health ministry said that a total of 77.09 crore tests have been conducted in the country so far of which 9,23,351 tests were carried out in the last 24 hours.

Overall, 178.29 crore vaccine doses have also been administered under the nationwide vaccination drive against coronavirus, as per details shared.