India reports 48,698 new COVID-19 cases, 1,183 deaths, active caseload below 5 lakh after 86 days; key points

India’s total COVID-19 caseload rose by 48,698 cases to 3,01,83,143, the Union Health Ministry said on Saturday. This maintains the trend of the number of new cases remaining below 60,000 for the seventh consecutive day. The number of active cases dropped by around 17,300, and the total figure now stands at 5,95,565. The country also recorded 64,818 recoveries and 1,183 deaths in the last 24 hours . With this, the national COVID-19 toll rose to 3,94,493 and the total number of patients recovered stood at 2,91,93,085. Notably, the bulk of active COVID-19 cases fell below the six lakh-mark after 86 days, the ministry said. With 17,45,809 samples tested for COVID-19 on Friday, the daily positivity rate fell to 2.79 percent on Saturday. The positivity rate has been below three percent for the past five consecutive days, and below five percent for the past 12 days. Kerala reported 11, 500 new cases, Maharashtra reported around 9,600 new cases, and Tamil Nadu reported 5,800 new cases in the span of 24 hours. Additionally, the statewise deaths were: 118 (Kerala), 511 (Maharashtra), and 150 (Tamil Nadu). Kerala and Meghalaya were among the cases to report a rise in active COVID-19 cases, reports said. In terms of positivity rate, Sikkim topped the chart with 14.11 percent, followed by Manipur at 12.83 percent, Kerala at 10.37 percent, Uttar Pradesh at 0.08 percent, Madhya Pradesh at 0.09 percent, and Bihar at 0.2 percent, News18 reported. On the vaccination front, the report said that 61.19 lakh people were vaccinated in the alst 24 hours, taking the total number of people inoculated to 31.5 crore. The ICMR said that a total of 40,18,11,892 samples were tested up to 25 June.

Key data highlights:

- Deaths below 1,500 for the sixth consecutive day. New cases below 60,000 for the seventh day. - Active cases below the six lakh-mark after 86 days. - Kerala reports 11,500 new cases, Maharashtra reports 9,600 new cases, and Tamil Nadu reports 5,800 new cases. - Maharashtra reports 511 new deaths, Tamil Nadu 150, Kerala 118. - Kerala, Meghalaya report rise in active cases. - Difference between new cases reported in the last seven days and the preceding seven days is -23 percent (world average is +0.6 percent). - Single-day vaccinations on Friday are 61.19 lakh, taking total to 31.5 crore. Of these, 52.02 lakh received their first dose yesterday, 9.17 lakh second dose. - The test positivity rate stands at 2.79 percent, down from 2.98 percent the previous day. - Test positivity rate is below 3 percent for the fifth straight day, and below 5 percent for the 12th day. - India has conducted more than 40 crore (400 million) COVID-19 tests so far. - Test positivity rate: Sikkim 14.11%, Manipur 12.83%, Kerala 10.37%. Uttar Pradesh 0.08%, Madhya Pradesh 0.09%, Bihar 0.2%. India’s COVID-19 tally had crossed the 20-lakh mark on August 7 last year, 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. The country crossed the grim milestone of 2 crore total COVID-19 cases on 4 May this year and 3 crore on 23 June. With inputs from PTI