India logs 8,318 new COVID-19 cases in last 24 hours; active infections lowest in 541 days

New Delhi: India saw a single-day rise of 8,318 new coronavirus infections taking the country’s tally of COVID-19 cases to 3,45,63,749, while the active cases have declined to 1,07,019, the lowest in 541 days, according to Union Health Ministry data updated on Saturday. The death toll has climbed to 4,67,933 with 465 daily fatalities, according to the data updated at 8 am. The daily rise in new coronavirus infections has been below 20,000 for 50 continuous days and less than 50,000 daily new cases have been reported for 153 consecutive days now. The active cases have declined to 1,07,019 comprising 0.31 per cent of the total infections, the lowest since March 2020, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate was recorded at 98.34 percent, the highest since March 2020, the health ministry said. A decrease of 3,114 cases has been recorded in the active COVID-19 caseload in a span of 24 hours. The daily positivity rate was recorded at 0.86 percent. It has been less than 2 percent for the last 54 days. The weekly positivity rate was also recorded at 0.88 percent. It has been below 1 percent for the last 13 days, according to the health ministry. The number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 3,39,88,797, while the case fatality rate was recorded at 1.35 percent. The cumulative doses administered in the country so far under the nationwide COVID-19 vaccination drive have exceeded 121.06 crore. 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. India crossed the grim milestone of two crore coronavirus cases on May 4 and three crore on June 23.