New Delhi : India logged 9,119 new coronavirus infections taking the country’s total tally of COVID-19 cases to 3,45,44,882, while the active cases declined to 1,09,940, the lowest in 539 days, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Thursday.
The number of deaths climbed to 4,66,980 with 396 fresh fatalities, according to the data updated at 8 am.
The daily rise in new coronavirus infections has been below 20,000 for 48 straight days and less than 50,000 daily new cases have been reported for 151 consecutive days now.
The active cases comprise 0.32 per cent of the total infections, the lowest since March 2020, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate was recorded at 98.33 per cent, the highest since March 2020, the health ministry said.
A decrease of 1,541 cases has been recorded in the active COVID-19 caseload in a span of 24 hours.
India’s COVID-19 tally had crossed the 20-lakh mark on August 7, 2020, 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, crossed 80 lakh on October 29, 90 lakh on November 20 and surpassed the one-crore mark on December 19. India crossed the grim milestone of two crore on May 4 and three crore on June 23.
Centre Raises Concerns Over Decrease In COVID Testing
Citing multiple surges in coronavirus cases in several countries, the Union Health Ministry has written to 13 states and union territories, including West Bengal, Kerala, Maharashtra and Punjab, expressing concerns over declining weekly testing rates and spiking positivity rates in some districts.
In a letter to Nagaland, Sikkim, Maharashtra, Kerala, Goa, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab, Rajasthan, West Bengal and Ladakh, Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan stressed on maintaining high testing rates given the recent increase in travelling due to events like marriages, festivals and vacations that have recently concluded or are underway.
“A decrease in testing would undermine the actual infection spread within the community,” Mr Bhushan said in the letter.
Also, with the onset of winter and increased pollution in some states, prevalence of ILI/SARI and respiratory distress symptoms should be closely monitored, with tests being conducted regularly for timely monitoring and clustering of cases for early hotspot identification, the official underlined.
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