India saw a slight drop in new Covid cases with 2,483 fresh infections registered in the last 24 hours, the latest health ministry data showed, as Assam added a backlog of 1,347 deaths, taking the country's overall Covid death tally to 5,23,622.
On Monday, 2,541 new Covid cases were recorded across the country.
The active caseload in the country currently stands at 15,636, according to the government data. “The active cases stand at 0.04 per cent and the recovery rate currently at 98.75 per cent,” a health ministry statement read.
Delhi, where a worrying surge has been reported lately, logged 1,011 fresh infections while the state of Maharashtra reported 84 infections. Over 200 cases were recorded from Uttar Pradesh.
Many states, including Delhi, Punjab, Haryana, have brought back the Covid rules, emphasising on the need of wearing masks as cases surge.
Earlier the country had seen an alarming increase in January during the third wave. And a new XE variant - first detected in the UK - had sparked concerns of a fresh wave.
While India has not seen a big surge in the number of deaths, backlog deaths have been added to the data earlier this month too when Kerala revised its tally.
{{/usCountry}}While India has not seen a big surge in the number of deaths, backlog deaths have been added to the data earlier this month too when Kerala revised its tally.
{{/usCountry}}Later, joint secretary Luv Agarwal wrote to state health secretary Rajan Khobragade, saying: “It has been observed that Kerala has reported state-level Covid-19 data after a gap of five days since April 13. This has impacted the status of India’s key monitoring indicators like deaths and positivity. You are accordingly requested to ensure daily updation."
But Kerala health minister Veena George had then said: "The argument Kerala did not submit Covid figures to the centre is wrong,"
While India's daily rise has not been worrying, several European nations - including Germany, Italy and France - and China have been recording a spike since March.