India records 38,949 new COVID cases in last 24 hours, 542 deaths

The positivity rate has been less than three per cent for 25 consecutive days, the Union Ministry data stated.

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New Delhi: Union Health Ministry data released on Friday (July 16) recorded yet another slight increase in COVID-19 cases, taking the total amount of active cases up to 4,30,422. 

The country also registered 542 coronavirus-related deaths and 40,026 recoveries. With this, the total number of cases in India has increased to 3,10,26,829.

The ministry said 19,55,910 tests were conducted on Thursday, taking the total cumulative tests conducted so far for detection of COVID-19 in the country to 44,00,23,239, while the daily positivity rate was recorded at 1.99 per cent.

The positivity rate has been less than three per cent for 25 consecutive days, it said. The weekly positivity rate stands at 2.14 per cent, according to the health ministry.

The number of people who have recovered from the disease has increased to 3,01,83,876, while the case fatality rate has risen to 1.33 per cent, the data stated.

The vaccine doses administered so far has reached 39.53 crore under the nationwide inoculation drive against COVID-19.

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.
India crossed two crore cases on May 4 and three crore cases on June 23.

(With inputs taken from news agencies)