India logs lowest fresh COVID cases since March 23

New Delhi: India recorded 42,640 new Covid-19 cases in the last 24 hours, the lowest since last 91 days, according to data released by the Union Health and Family Welfare Ministry on Tuesday.

The death count climbed to 3,89,302 with 1,167 fresh fatalities. The record low cases were reported on a day when India vaccinated a record 86.16 lakh people. This is the fifth consecutive day in the last two months when the toll has been below the 2,000-mark.

It is also the 15th consecutive day when India reported less than one lakh new coronavirus cases. On March 23, India had recorded 47,262 cases while on June 22 India reported 53,256 cases.

The overall tally of Covid-19 cases in the country now stands at 2,99,77,861.

The active cases have now come down below 8 lakh. The country has 6,62,521 active cases presently and has witnessed 3,89,302 deaths so far.

According to the Union Health Ministry, a total of 81,839 people have been discharged in the last 24 hours, taking the total discharge to 2,89,26,038 till date.

The Health Ministry said that a total of 28,87,66,201 people have been vaccinated so far in the country, including 86,16,373 who were administered vaccines in the last 24 hours.

According to the Indian Council of Medical Research, 39,40,72,142 samples have been tested up to June 21 for Covid-19. Of these 16,64,360 samples were tested on Monday.

Maharashtra, the worst-hit state, on Monday reported 6,270 new COVID-19 cases, taking the state's tally to 59.79 lakh. 21 cases of the Delta Plus Covid variant, the mutant version of the Delta variant, have been found in Maharashtra so far, state Health Minister Rajesh Tope said.

After Maharashtra, Kerala, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh have the highest number of infections.

Meanwhile, the overall global Covid-19 caseload has topped 178.6 million, while the deaths have surged to more than 3.87 million, according to the Johns Hopkins University

In its latest update on Tuesday morning, the University's Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) revealed that the current global caseload and death toll stood at 178,686,182 and 3,870,373, respectively.

The US continues to be the worst-hit country with the world's highest number of cases and deaths at 33,553,967 and 602,086, respectively, while India follows in second place in terms of infections, according to the CSSE. In terms of deaths, Brazil comes second with 501,825 fatalities.

The other worst countries with over 3 million cases are Brazil (17,927,928), France (5,819,575), Turkey (5,375,593), Russia (5,272,328), the UK (4,656,535), Argentina (4,277,395), Italy (4,253,460), Colombia (3,968,405), Spain (3,764,651), Germany (3,730,619) and Iran (3,105,620), the CSSE figures showed.

Nations with a death toll of over 100,000 are India (388,135), Mexico (231,187), the UK (128,245), Italy (127,291), Russia (127,641) and France (110,940).