India logs 8K COVID infections for second day, active cases rise to 44,513

Active COVID-19 cases in the country rose to 44,513 as India logged 8,582 fresh infections in the past 24 hours.

The country’s COVID tally rose to 4,32,22,017 while the death toll climbed to 5,24,761 with four fatalities, the health ministry said.

The active cases comprises 0.10 per cent of the total infections, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate was recorded at 98.66 per cent, the ministry said. An increase of 4,143 cases has been recorded in the active COVID-19 caseload in a span of 24 hours.

The daily positivity rate was recorded at 2.71 per cent while the weekly positivity rate was recorded at 2.02 per cent, according to the ministry. The number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 4,26,52,743, while the case fatality rate was 1.21 per cent.

The cumulative doses administered in the country so far under the nationwide COVID-19 vaccination drive has exceeded 195.07 crore.

The increase in the national tally was driven by a rise in cases in Maharashtra. Mumbai on Saturday logged 1,745 new COVID cases, taking the total number of active patients to over 10,000. Maharashtra reported 2,922 cases and one death.

Karnataka recorded 562 new COVID-19 cases, including 545 in Bengaluru alone, taking the state’s active caseload to 3,387.

India’s COVID-19 tally had crossed the 20-lakh mark on August 7, 2020, 30 lakh on August 23, 40 lakh on September 5 and 50 lakh on September 16. It went past 60 lakh on September 28, 70 lakh on October 11, crossed 80 lakh on October 29, 90 lakh on November 20 and surpassed the one-crore mark on December 19. The country crossed the grim milestone of two crore on May 4 and three crore on June 23 last year. The four new fatalities include three from Kerala and one from Maharashtra.

(With inputs from agencies)