India records 2.40L COVID cases, stays below 3L-mark for 7th day
India on Sunday (May 23) logged 2,40,842 fresh COVID-19 infections, which took its total tally to 1,65,30,132 cases. This is the seventh consecutive day when the country saw fresh cases remaining below the 3-lakh mark.
The death toll due to the disease rose to 2,99,266 with 3,741 fresh fatalities, said health ministry data.
The active cases further reduced to 28,05,399 comprising 10.57 per cent of the total infections, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate improved to 88.30 per cent.
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The number of people who have recuperated from the disease has gone up to 2,34,25,467 while the case fatality rate stood at 1.13 per cent.
According to the health ministry, eight states have more than 1 lakh active cases. The government also said that there has been a fall in the positivity rate over the past two weeks – 18 states have a positivity rate of more than 15 per cent while the same for 14 states is between five to 15 per cent. Four states have a positivity rate less than 5 per cent.
The fall in positivity rate comes even though there has been rise in concern about a spread of black fungus or mucormycosis in COVID patients. The disease has hit almost 9,000 patients so far.
India’s COVID-19 tally had crossed the 20 lakh-mark on August 7 last, 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 last year. India crossed the grim milestone of 2 crore on May 4 this year.
According to the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), 32,86,07,937 samples have been tested for COVID-19 up to May 22 with 21,23,782 samples tested on Saturday. The 3,741 new fatalities include 682 from Maharashtra, 448 from Tamil Nadu, 451 from Karnataka, 218 from Uttar Pradesh, 201 from Punjab, 182 from Delhi, 176 from Kerala, 154 from West Bengal, 134 from Uttarakhand, Â 118 from Andhra Pradesh, 115 from Rajasthan, 103 from Chhattisgarh and 98 from Haryana.
A total of 2,99,266 deaths have been reported so far in the country, including 87,300 from Maharashtra, 24,658 from Karnataka, 23,013 from Delhi, 20,046 from Tamil Nadu, 18,978 from Uttar Pradesh, 14,208 from West Bengal, Â 13,089 from Punjab and 12,494 from Chhattisgarh, the ministry said.
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The health ministry stressed that more than 70 per cent of the deaths occurred due to comorbidities.
“Our figures are being reconciled with the ICMR,” the ministry said on its website, adding that state-wise distribution of figures is subject to further verification and reconciliation.
(With inputs from agencies)
