NEW DELHI, May 25: For the first time in 40 days, India’s daily new cases dropped down below the two lakh mark on Tuesday. The country reached a significant milestone on Tuesday, when it recorded 1,96,427 new Corona cases, the union health ministry said.
India had registered 1,84,372 new coronavirus infections on April 14.
The country also reported the lowest death toll in 21 days with 3,511 fresh fatalities, the health ministry data updated at 8am showed. The fresh fatalities include 592 from Maharashtra, 529 from Karnataka, 404 from Tamil Nadu, 207 from Delhi, 196 from Kerala, 187 from Punjab, 153 each from Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal, 122 from Uttarakhand and 103 from Rajasthan.
The active cases further reduced to 25,86,782, which is now 9.60 per cent of the total infections, while the national Covid-19 recovery rate has improved to 89.26 per cent.
India’s daily recoveries continue to outnumber the daily new cases of the infection for the 12th consecutive day. The number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 2,40,54,861, while the case fatality rate stands at 1.14 per cent, the data stated.
India’s Covid-19 tally had crossed the 20-lakh mark on August 7, 30 lakh on August 23, 40 lakh on September 5 and 50 lakh on September 16 last year. It went past 60 lakh on September 28, 70 lakh on October 11, crossed 80 lakh on October 29, 90 lakh on November 20 and surpassed the one-crore mark on December 19 last year doubling it to the grim milestone of two crore in less than five months on May 4, 2021.
According to Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), 33,25,94,176 samples have been tested up to May 24 with 20,58,112 samples being tested on Monday.
Meanwhile, the cumulative number of Covid-19 vaccine doses administered to beneficiaries has reached 19,85,38,999, the health ministry said. It also said 12.82 lakh vaccination doses were administered for 18-44 age group in last 24 hours.
This is the highest since May 1 when the liberalised pricing and accelerated national Covid-19 vaccination strategy was implemented, the ministry said.
(Manas Dasgupta)