India reports 16,326 fresh covid cases, jump in fatalities as Kerala revises data

New Delhi, Oct 23: India added 16,326 fresh COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours, taking the total tally to 3,41,59,562,according to the Union Health Ministry's data updated on Saturday. The active cases have declined to 1,73,728.

Meanwhile, there was a big jump in India's Covid-19 fatalities with 666 more deaths, which took the death toll to 4,53,708. Kerala has added 563 deaths as a backlog to its Covid-19 death toll.

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 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 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 in the country to 59,84,31,162.

The daily positivity rate was recorded at 1.2 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.

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.

According to the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), 59,84,31,162 samples have been tested up to October 22 for COVID-19. Of these 13,64,681 samples were tested on Friday.