India logs 14,313 new COVID-19 cases, lowest in over 7 months

The active cases declined to 2,14,900, lowest since March 2020, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate was recorded at 98.04 per cent.

New Delhi: India recorded 14,313 fresh coronavirus cases, the lowest in 224 days, taking the infection tally to 3,39,85,920 on Tuesday, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate increased to 98.04 per cent, according to the Union Health Ministry's data.

The death toll reached 4,50,963 with 181 new fatalities, the data updated at 8 am showed. The daily rise in new coronavirus infections has been below 30,000 for 18 straight days and less than 50,000 daily new cases have been reported for 107 consecutive days now.

The active cases have declined to 2,14,900 comprising 0.63 per cent of the total infections, the lowest since March 2020, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate was recorded at 98.04 per cent, the highest since March 2020, the ministry said.

A decrease of 12,447 cases has been recorded in the active COVID-19 caseload in a span of 24 hours.

A total of 11,81,766 tests were conducted on Monday, taking the number of cumulative tests conducted so far for detection of COVID-19-19 in the country to 58,50,38,043.

The daily positivity rate was recorded at 1.21 per cent. It has been less than three per cent for the last 43 days.

The weekly positivity rate was recorded at 1.48 per cent. It has been below three per cent for the last 109 days, according to the Health Ministry.

The number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 3,33,20,057, while the case fatality rate was recorded at 1.33 per cent.

Over 95.89 crore COVID-19 vaccine doses have been administered in the country so far under the nationwide vaccination drive.

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.

The 181 new fatalities include 84 from Kerala, and 36 from Maharashtra.

A total of 4,50,963 deaths have been reported so far in the country, including 1,39,578 from Maharashtra, 37,895 from Karnataka, 35,796 from Tamil Nadu, 26,342 from Kerala, 25,089 from Delhi, 22,896 from Uttar Pradesh, and 18,914 from West Bengal.

The health ministry stressed that more than 70 per cent of the deaths occurred due to comorbidities.

"Our figures are being reconciled with the Indian Council of Medical Research," the ministry said on its website, adding that state-wise distribution of figures is subject to further verification and reconciliation.