COVID-19: 34,457 cases reported in last 24 hours

New Delhi, Aug 21: A single-day rise of 34,457 COVID-19 cases pushed India's tally to 3,23,93,286 on Saturday, while the number of active cases declined to 3,61,340, the lowest in 151 days, according to Union health ministry data.

India has reported less than 50,000 daily cases for 55 consecutive days.

The death toll climbed to 4,33,964 with 375 fresh fatalities, according to the data updated at 8 am.

The 3,61,340 active cases comprise 1.12 per cent of the total infections, the lowest since March last year. The national COVID-19 recovery rate stands at 97.54 per cent, the highest since March last year, the ministry said.

A reduction of 2,265 cases has been recorded in the active caseload in a span of 24 hours.

The daily positivity rate stands at 2 per cent. It has been less than 3 per cent for the last 26 days, according to the ministry.

The weekly positivity rate stands at 1.98 per cent. It has been below 3 per cent for the last 57 days, the ministry said.

As many as 17,21,205 COVID-19 tests were conducted on Friday, taking the total number of tests done so far in the country to 50,45,76,158.

The number of people who have recuperated from the disease has surged to 3,15,97,982, while the case fatality rate stands at 1.34 per cent, the data stated.

So far, 57.61 crore COVID-19 vaccine doses have been administered under the nationwide vaccination drive.

India's COVID-19 tally had crossed the 20-lakh mark on August 7 last year, 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, 80 lakh on October 29, 90 lakh on November 20 and surpassed the one-crore mark on December 19.

India's caseload crossed the grim milestone of two crore on May 4 and three crore on June 23.

The 375 new fatalities include 105 from Maharashtra and 99 from Kerala.

Of the 4,33,964 deaths reported so far in the country, 1,35,672 were from Maharashtra, 37,105 from Karnataka, 34,663 from Tamil Nadu, 25,079 from Delhi, 22,791 from Uttar Pradesh, 19,345 from Kerala and 18,346 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.

(PTI)