Coronavirus cases: India's daily COVID-19 cases drop to 11,427; Records 118 fresh fatalities

New Delhi, Feb 01: Union health ministry on Monday said that India recorded 11,427 new cases of COVID-19, on a day when finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman will present the Union Budget. With this, the nationwide tally reached 10,757,610.

The number of active cases of the disease went down to 1,68,235, the health ministry update at 8 am showed. The recoveries stood at 10,434,983.

The health ministry also said that India recorded 118 fresh fatalities due to the disease in the said period which took the death toll to 1,54,392. On Sunday, India had recorded 127 fatalities linked to coronavirus.

The health ministry had said on Saturday that the country's recovery rate has reached nearly 97 per cent (96.98 per cent), adding that it is one of the highest globally.

Addressing the British Association of Physicians of Indian Origin (BAPIO) Wales at their annual conference via video link on Saturday night, health minister Harsh Vardhan said on Saturday that India was able to fight the Covid-19 pandemic much better than other countries because of its "whole of government" and "whole of society" approach.

"India was the first country to respond within an hour when WHO declared Covid-19 a pandemic. Planning started on January 8 and guidelines were drafted by 17th. Massive surveillance started on the same day with meticulous contact tracing unparalleled in the world," Vardhan said.

India has also been witnessing a nationwide vaccination programme to combat the COVID-19 infection. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has termed it the world's biggest vaccination programme.