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Covid-19: India logs 11,850 new cases; daily toll tops 500 for 2nd straight day
The fresh infections witnessed a fall of over 5 per cent from yesterday, while daily fatalities, at 555, were up by nearly 11 per cent.
For a second straight day, India saw more than 500 new coronavirus disease (Covid-19) related fatalities, as 555 more people succumbed due to the infection, taking the overall toll to 463,245, the Union ministry of health and family welfare (MoHFW) said on Saturday. The country also added 11,850 fresh infections, more than 5 per cent lower than yesterday, taking the cumulative case count to 34,426,036, the ministry said in its daily bulletin.
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Of the new cases and deaths, 6674 infections and 471 fatalities (59 fresh+412 backlog) were reported from Kerala alone. The southern state thus contributed more than 56 per cent and 86 per cent of the latest daily infections and deaths respectively.
Saturday's bulletin also showed that as many as 12,403 more patients were discharged after recovery, taking the total number of such cases to 33,826,483, while active caseload fell by 1108 to 136,308. It added that the recovery rate, at 98.26 per cent, was at its highest since March 2020, also highlighting that the active caseload was at its lowest in 39 weeks (274 days). At 0.40 per cent, the contribution of active cases in the overall tally is at its lowest since March last year, while deaths contribute 1.34 per cent to the total tally, the ministry further said.
Meanwhile, with 1,266,589 samples tested for Covid-19 on Friday, 622,333,939 samples have been tested since the beginning of the pandemic, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) data showed. The daily positivity rate, therefore, stood at 0.94 per cent, staying below the 2 per cent mark for the 40th consecutive day.
For the 50th straight day, the weekly positivity rate, too, remained below 2 per cent, and was recorded at 1.05 per cent.
With 5,842,530 more vaccine doses administered, the cumulative vaccination coverage has risen to more than 1.11 billion.
