India's active COVID-19 cases fall below 2% of total caseload

The share of India’s active COVID-19 cases, which stand at 2,08,826, has fallen below 2 per cent of the total caseload for the first time, the Union health ministry said on Sunday (January 17).

The ministry attributed the fall to the steady decline in the daily cases.

“For the first time, India’s share of active cases within the total positive cases has shrunk below 2 per cent (1.98 per cent),” the ministry said in a statement.

The country has reported less than 20,000 daily cases over the past 10 days, it said. The total recovered cases — 10,196,885 — exceed active cases by 99,88,059.

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According to the ministry, India has recorded less than 300 daily deaths for the last 23 days.

The ministry said six states and union territories accounted for 66.30 per cent of the 181 case fatalities reported the previous day.

India’s COVID-19 caseload climbed to 1,05,57,985 on Sunday (January 17) with 15,144 fresh infections while recoveries surged to 1,01,96,885, pushing the national recovery rate to 96.58 per cent, according to data released by the ministry.
The death toll increased to 1,52,274 with 181 more fatalities, the data updated at 8 am showed.

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India began its nationwide vaccination drive on Saturday (January 16) across 3,000 centres, but the intended target of 3 lakh was missed–only 1.65 lakh people were inoculated.

(With inputs from agencies)