New COVID cases under 10k for third day in a row

India logged 7,754 fresh COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours, slightly higher than the previous day but under the 10,000 mark for the third day in a row.

The new cases take the number of total confirmed coronavirus cases in the country to 4,29,38,599.

A total of 223 COVID-19 deaths were also registered in the last 24 hours, taking the official toll of fatalities due to the infectious disease to 5,14,226. Kerala continued to report backlog deaths as part of its data reconciliation exercise registering 128 fatalities.

Kerala also registered the most deaths at 40 but all other states reported 10 or fewer fatalities in the 24-hour period. Kerala is the only state in India with active COVID-19 infections above 25,000 but, like other states and Union Territories, it is also reporting a rapid decline in active infections.

The active COVID-19 caseload in the country now stands at 85,680 — 6,792 lower than the previous day and 0.20 per cent of the total confirmed cases.

The daily test positivity rate in India stood at 0.96 per cent, while the rolling average of the weekly positivity rate came down to 1.06 per cent.

The states cumulatively registered 14,123 recoveries in the last 24 hours, raising the total recoveries to 4,23,38,673 with the recovery rate reaching 98.60 per cent.

The health ministry said that a total of 76.91 crore tests have been conducted in the country so far of which 7,84,059 tests were carried out in the last 24 hours.

Overall, 177.79 crore vaccine doses have also been administered so far under the nationwide vaccination drive against coronavirus, as per details shared.

The Centre also said that it has supplied 177.70 crore COVID-19 vaccine doses to states so far of which 14.45 crore doses remain unutilised.