India records 1,73,790 fresh cases, lowest in 45 days

NEW DELHI: India on Saturday recorded 1,73,790 fresh Covid-19 cases, taking the cumulative tally past 27.7 million, as the country recorded less than 200,000 cases for the third time in this month, according to the Union health ministry.

The fresh infections of the viral contagion recorded on Saturday are the lowest India has seen in 48 days.

In the last 24 hours, at least 3,617 people have died due to coronavirus disease, data updated at 8am showed. A total of 322,512 people have succumbed to the virus in the country, according to the health ministry.

Active cases in the country dipped to 2,228,724 on Saturday, accounting for 8.50 of the total infections in the country. A total of 25,178,011 people have recuperated from the disease, taking India’s recovery rate to 90.3.

Official data states that the recoveries from the viral infection continue to outnumber the daily new cases for 16 days in a row. The recovery rate settled at 90.34% a day earlier. The weekly positivity rate for the country is logged at 9.84%, the union health ministry said.

After witnessing its worst-ever crisis in health in the history of independent India, the country is on a downswing of the second wave of Covid-19 as the daily cases and deaths have started to reduce, officials said on Friday.

“We are on a downswing of the second wave of Covid-19 and believe that it will be sustained even when restrictions are significantly relaxed,” the ministry said.

“A steady decline in new Covid-19 cases has been recorded in India for the last 20 days. Twenty-four states have also reported a decline in active Covid-19 cases since the last week,” it said.

According to the Indian Council of Medical Research, a total of 20,80,048 tests were conducted in the last 24 hours in the country and cumulatively 3,41,119,909 tests have been done so far.

The Union health ministry sad that nearly 20,89,02,445 vaccine doses were administered so far under the nationwide vaccination drive.