Massive surge! India reports 15,000+ COVID cases after a month

Maintaining a rise in COVID-19 infections, India reported over 15,000 daily cases after nearly a month, according to the latest data updated on Union health ministry’s website.

The exact daily figures stand at 16,738 cases and 138 fatalities in the last 24 hours, which took the country’s tally to 1,10,46,914 cases and 1,56,705 cases.

On January 29, 18,855 new infections were recorded in a span of 24 hours after which the daily rise of cases stayed below the 15,000-mark. The daily deaths were registered above 130 after a gap of 26 days.

Meanwhile, the recovery figures too surged to 1,07,38,501, which translates to a national COVID-19 recovery rate of  97.21 per cent and case fatality rate stands at 1.42 per cent. The active caseload increased to 1,51,708, comprising 1.37 per cent of the total infections, the data stated.

India’s COVID-19 tally had crossed the 20-lakh mark on August 7, 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.

According to the ICMR, 21,38,29,658  samples have been tested up to February 24 with 7,93,383 samples being tested on Wednesday.

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The 138 new fatalities include 80 from Maharashtra, 17 from Kerala, seven from Punjab, and six each from Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.

A total of 1,56,705 deaths have been reported so far in the country, including 51,937 from Maharashtra followed by 12,478 from Tamil Nadu, 12,309 from Karnataka, 10,905 from Delhi, 10,256 from West Bengal, 8,721 from Uttar Pradesh, and 7,168 from Andhra Pradesh.

The health ministry stressed that more than 70 per cent of the deaths occurred due to comorbidities.

(With inputs from agencies)