India tally shoots upto 42,015; Records 3998 new COVID-related deaths

New Delhi, July 21: Union health ministry on Wednesday said that India recorded 42,015 new COVID-19 cases and 3998 deaths in the last 24 hours.

According to the health ministry, the daily positivity rate stands at 2.27% and has remained under 3 per cent for the 30th consecutive day.

India has been coming out of a deadly second wave of the disease outbreak which overwhelmed the medical infrastructure to the point of a breakdown. At its peak of second-wave, India recorded 414,188 infections in a span of 24 hours on May 6.

The cases have receded gradually since then, and India recorded its lowest daily spike in 125 days at 30,093 infections on Tuesday.

In the ongoing monsoon session of Parliament, the government pointed to the easing of lockdown combined with pandemic fatigue, lack of community adherence to COVID appropriate behaviour and evolution and circulation of more transmissible variants of SARS-CoV-2 viruses to the second wave.

Minister of State for health Bharati Pravin Pawar said central teams deployed to across India from February to May observed a lack of adherence to Covid appropriate behaviour and sub-optimal efforts at containment in certain geographies.