India reported 48,786 new positive cases of Covid-19 in the last 24 hours on Thursday. The number was up from 45,951 cases that were recorded on Wednesday. 1,005 deaths were also reported in the last 24 hours. The number of deaths currently stands at a total of 3,99,459.
The fresh surge pushed the total tally of Covid-19 cases in India to 3,04,11,634 on Thursday from 3,03,62,848 on Wednesday.
According to the Union ministry of health, 61,588 Covid-19 recoveries were recorded in India during the last 24 hours, taking the active cases tally to 5,23,257, comprising 1.72 per cent of the total infections, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate has improved to 96.97 per cent.
As many as 19,21,450 tests were conducted on Wednesday taking the total cumulative tests conducted so far for detection of COVID-19 in the country to 41,20,21,494.
The daily positivity rate was recorded at 2.54 per cent . It has been less than five per cent for 24 consecutive days, the ministry said, adding the weekly positivity rate has declined to 2.64 per cent.
Recoveries continue to outnumber daily new cases for the 49th consecutive day. The number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 2,94,88,918, while the case fatality rate stands at 1.31 per cent, the data stated.
The 1,005 new fatalities include 221 from Uttarakhand, 142 from Kerala, 141 from Maharashtra, 113 from Tamil Nadu and 111 from Karnataka.
A total of 3,99,459 deaths have been reported so far in the country including 1,21,945 from Maharashtra, 35,040 from Karnataka, 32,619 from Tamil Nadu, 24,977 from Delhi, 22,591 from Uttar Pradesh, 17,708 from West Bengal and 16,052 from Punjab.
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.
Indian drugmaker, Zydus Cadilla on Thursday said that it had applied for emergency use approval to India's drug regulator for its coronavirus vaccine. As per reports, the company plans to annually manufacture nearly 120 million of doses of the vaccine.