Over 45,000 new Covid-19 cases, 496 deaths take India’s tally to 8.22 million

There were 45,231 new cases of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) and 496 related death in the last 24 hours, according to the Union health ministry on Monday morning, which have taken the tally of the world’s second worst-hit country to over 8.22 million.

The number of active cases stood at 561,908 and India’s death toll is at 122,607, the health ministry’s data showed at 8am.

With 53,285 recoveries in the last 24 hours, 7,544,798 Covid-19 patients have been cured of the viral disease so far, according to the health ministry. The national recovery rate has further improved to 91.68%.

The gap between recovered and active cases is no 6,982,890. On Sunday, there were 7,491,513 recovered cases in total and the ministry said that 76% of these were concentrated in 10 states and Union territories. Karnataka, Kerala and Maharashtra had contributed the maximum to the new recovered cases with more than 7,000 single day recoveries, it had said on Sunday. Delhi and West Bengal added more than 4,000 to the new recoveries, it also said.

On Sunday, the third day in a row, the active cases had dropped below the 600,000 mark after nearly three months, the progressive decline has been maintained, the ministry had said. Presently India’s total active caseload is 5,70,458. The active cases have dropped to only 6.97% of the total positive cases of the country demonstrating a steady falling percentage of the total cases, it had said on Sunday.

The health ministry had also said on Sunday that there were 46,963 new cases in a single day and 77% of these are from 10 states and Union territories. Kerala is still reporting a very high number of new cases with more than 7,000 cases followed by Maharashtra and Delhi with more than 5,000 cases, according to the ministry’s data. Of the 470 Covid-19 deaths between Saturday and Sunday morning, nearly 78% are concentrated in 10 states and Union territories. The ministry said more than 15% of these fatalities were reported from Maharashtra.

The cases per million in India are among the lowest in the world and average cases per million stand at 5,930, the ministry had said on Sunday. It added that 17 states and Union territories have cases per million lower than the national average.

According to the health ministry, India’s deaths per million population is one of the lowest in the world and stand at 88, and 21 states and Union territories have deaths per million lower than the national average.