India registers 43,263 new Covid-19 cases, active cases increased to 3.93 lakh

India registered 43,263 new Covid-19 cases on Wednesday to take the total tally to 3,31,39,981. The active cases increased to 3,93,614 in the country while the death toll reached 4,41,749 after 338 new fatalities on Thursday, according to the Union health ministry data updated on Thursday.

With 181 fatalities, Kerala topped the table of states with the highest daily deaths followed by Maharashtra (65). Among the 4,41,749 fatalities due to Covid-19, Maharashtra reported 1,37,962 deaths followed by Karnataka (37,458), Tamil Nadu (35,073), Delhi (25,083), Uttar Pradesh (22,863), Kerala (22,001) and West Bengal (18,531).

The ministry added that over 70 per cent of the deaths were reported due to comorbidities. "Our figures are being reconciled with the Indian Council of Medical Research," the ministry said on its website.

The active cases comprise 1.19 per cent of the total infections and the national COVID-19 recovery rate was recorded at 97.48 per cent, the ministry said. An increase of 2,358 cases has been recorded in the active COVID-19 caseload in a span of 24 hours.

As many as 18,17,639 tests were conducted on Wednesday taking the total cumulative tests conducted so far for detection of COVID-19 in the country to 53,68,17,243.

The latest data further indicated that the positivity rate, which has been less than 10 per cent in the last 10 days, was recorded as 2.38 per cent while the positivity rate was recorded at 2.43 per cent. It has been below three per cent for the last 76 days, according to the ministry.

The total number of recovered people increased to 3,23,04,618. The cumulative doses administered in the country so far under the nationwide vaccination drive has exceeded 71.65 crore.

India's COVID-19 tally had crossed the 20-lakh mark on 7 August, 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 11, crossed 80 lakh on 29 October, 90 lakh on 20 November and surpassed the one-crore mark on 19 December. India crossed the grim milestone of two crore on 4 May and three crore on 23 June.