India adds 67,208 fresh COVID-19 cases in last 24 hours; positivity rate falls but Kerala, Goa, Sikkim remain a concern

New Delhi: A single-day rise of 67,208 new coronavirus infections were recorded taking India’s total tally of COVID-19 cases to 2,97,00,313, while the active cases declined to 8,26,740, the lowest after 71 days, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Thursday. The COVID-19 death toll climbed to 3,81,903 with 2,330 fresh fatalities, the data updated at 8 am showed. The active cases declined to 8,26,740 comprising 2.78 percent of the total infections, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate has improved to 95.93 percent. Which are the states of concern? There is still a bit of worry in the states of Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra which have reported 13.3K, 10.4K, 10.1K new cases respectively in the last 24 hours. The test positivity rate in Sikkim is 13.41 percent, 11.98 percent in Goa and 11.79 percent in Kerala. In contrast, Uttar Pradesh has recorded a low positivity rate of 0.09 percent, Madhya Pradesh 0.22 percent and Delhi 0.27 percent. There is a total of seven states/UTs, which are reporting a rise in active cases with West Bengal being a prominent one in this regard which has seen cases going in the last seven days. Among the deaths, Maharashtra has reported 1,236 new deaths including backlog figures and Tamil Nadu 270, Karnataka 148 in the last 24 hours. It may be noted that Maharashtra has reported 999 backlog deaths and the difference between deaths reported and Maharashtra backlog is 1,331. Where is the hope? A net decline of 38,692 cases has been recorded in the COVID-19 caseload in a span of 24 hours. As many as 19,31,249 tests were conducted on Wednesday taking the total cumulative tests conducted so far for detection of COVID-19 in the country to 38,52,38,220. While 17 states/UTs are reporting less than 10 new deaths, the difference between new cases reported in the last seven days and the preceding seven days is -30 percent. The world average is -5 percent. On the vaccination front, 34.64 lakh new vaccinations were given taking the total tally to 26.55 crore. On Wednesday, 30.97 lakh people received their first dose while 3.67 lakh people got their second dose. A total of 19.31 lakh new tests in the last 24 hours and the test positivity rate is at 3.48 percent. (3.22% the previous day). The test positivity rate has remained below 5 percent for the 10th day and below 4 percent for the third day. Recoveries continue to outnumber daily new cases for the 35th consecutive day. The number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 2,84,91,670, while the case fatality rate has increased to 1.29 percent, the data stated. Cumulatively, 26,55,19,251 COVID-19 vaccine doses have been administered so far under the Nationwide Vaccination Drive. India’s COVID-19 tally had crossed the 20-lakh mark on 7 August, 30 lakh on 23 August, 40 lakh on 5 September and 50 lakh on 16 September. It went past 60 lakh on 28 September, 70 lakh on 11 October, crossed 80 lakh on 29 October, 90 lakh on 20 November and surpassed the one-crore mark on 19 December. India crossed the grim milestone of 2 crore on 4 May.