With Kerala revising its data, COVID-19 deaths jump to 666 in India; active cases continue to decline

New Delhi: India saw a single-day rise of 16,326 new COVID-19 cases, taking the tally to 3,41,59,562, while the active cases have declined to 1,73,728, the lowest in 233 days, according to the Union health ministry’s data updated on Saturday. The death toll has climbed to 4,53,708 with 666 daily fatalities, according to the data updated at 8 am. Kerala has reconciled 292 fatalities on Saturday from the previous period. Hence, the death toll is higher, officials said, adding that 99 deaths have been reported from Kerala in the last 24 hours. The daily rise in new coronavirus infections has been below 30,000 for 29 straight days and less than 50,000 daily new cases have been reported for 118 consecutive days now. The active cases have decreased to 1,73,728 comprising 0.51 per cent of the total infections, the lowest since March 2020, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate was recorded at 98.16 per cent, the highest since March 2020, the health ministry said. A decrease of 2,017 cases has been recorded in the total active number of COVID-19 cases in a span of 24 hours. Also, 13,64,681 tests were conducted on Friday, taking the total cumulative tests conducted so far for detection of COVID-19 in the country to 59,84,31,162. The daily positivity rate was recorded at 1.20 per cent and the weekly positivity rate was also recorded at 1.24 per cent, according to the health ministry. The number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 3,35,32,126, while the case fatality rate was recorded at 1.33 per cent. The cumulative doses administered in the country so far under the nationwide COVID-19 vaccination drive has exceeded 101.30 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. The country crossed the grim milestone of two crore on May 4 and three crore on June 23. The 666 new fatalities include 563 from Kerala and 40 from Maharashtra. A total of 4,53,708 deaths have been reported so far in the country, including 1,39,965 from Maharashtra, 37,995 from Karnataka, 35,987 from Tamil Nadu, 27,765 from Kerala, 25,091 from Delhi, 22,899 from Uttar Pradesh and 19,033 from West Bengal. The health ministry stressed that more than 70 per cent of the deaths occurred due to comorbidities. “Our figures are being reconciled with the Indian Council of Medical Research,” the ministry said on its website, adding that state-wise distribution of figures is subject to further verification and reconciliation.