India reports less than 20K new covid cases

New Delhi: India Tuesday recorded 19,556 new cases, the lowest in daily cases since the first week of July.

Total daily cases in the past 24 hours were 10,000 less than the number of recoveries, while the overall tally went past 1,00,75,000 cases.

The number of recoveries in the past 24 hours were 30,376. There were 301 deaths in the past 24 hours, and the total toll touched 1,46,111, said the Ministry of Health.

This is the lowest tally of new cases in a day in the past six months. On July 2 the number was 20,903 and on June 28 it was 19,459.

Till now, 96,36,487 have recovered. Currently, there are 2,92,518 active cases. The recovery rate stands at 95.65 per cent while the fatality rate is 1.45 as per cent.

A total of 16,31,70,557 samples have been tested for Covid-19 till now. Of these, 10,72,228 samples were tested on Monday, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) said.

Maharashtra continues to be the worst-hit state till date. Over 70 per cent of the daily new cases are being reported by 10 states and union territory -- Kerala, Maharashtra, West Bengal, Chhattisgarh, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, Delhi, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh.

Over 75 per cent of the deaths are being reported from Maharashtra, West Bengal, Delhi, Kerala, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Haryana.

Sending jitters a new virulent strain of the virus has appeared, which is said to be 70 per cent more aggressive, according to reports.

Flights and other forms of transport to and from the UK, where the new variant is raging, are banned.