COVID: India records 42,909 fresh cases, 380 deaths

New Delhi: India saw a single-day rise of 42,909 new COVID-19 infections, which took the total tally of cases to 3,27,37,939, while active cases registered an increase for the sixth consecutive day, according to Union health ministry data updated on Monday.

The death toll has climbed to 4,38,210 with 380 fresh fatalities, according to the data updated at 8 am.

The number of active cases has increased to 3,76,324 and comprise 1.15 per cent of the total infections. The national COVID-19 recovery rate has been recorded at 97.51 per cent, the health ministry said.

It said active cases in the country increased by 7,766 cases in a span of 24 hours.

The ministry said that 14,19,990 COVID-19 tests were conducted on Sunday, taking the total cumulative tests conducted so far in the country to 52,01,46,525.

The daily positivity rate has been recorded at 3.02 per cent. It is above three per cent after 35 days, it said. The weekly positivity rate has been recorded at 2.41 per cent. It has been below three per cent for the last 66 days, according to the health ministry.

The number of people who have recuperated from the disease has increased to 3,19,23,405, while the case fatality rate stands at 1.34 per cent, the data stated.

Cumulatively, 63.43 crore COVID-19 vaccine doses have been administered under the nationwide vaccination drive till Monday morning, the ministry said.

India's COVID-19 tally had crossed the 20-lakh mark on August 7 last year, 30 lakh on August 23, 40 lakh on September 5 and 50 lakh on September 16.

It went past 60 lakh on September 28, 70 lakh on October 11, crossed 80 lakh on October 29, 90 lakh on November 20 and surpassed the one-crore mark on December 19 last year.

India crossed two crore cases on May 4 and three crore cases on June 23. The 380 new fatalities include 131 from Maharashtra and 75 from Kerala.

A total of 4,38,210 deaths have been reported so far in the country, including 1,37,157 from Maharashtra, 37,278 from Karnataka, 34,878 from Tamil Nadu, 25,080 from Delhi, 22,818 from Uttar Pradesh, 20,541 from Kerala and 18,423 from West Bengal.

The health ministry said 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

Meanwhile, the global coronavirus caseload has topped 216.3 million, while the deaths have surged to more than 4.50 million and vaccinations soared to over 5.19 billion, according to the Johns Hopkins University.

In its latest update on Monday morning, the University's Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) revealed that the current global caseload, death toll and vaccination tally stood at 216,356,046, 4,500,291 and 5,191,545,258 respectively.

The US continues to be the worst-hit country with the world's highest number of cases and deaths at 38,796,236 and 637,525, respectively, according to the CSSE. In terms of infections, India follows in the second place with 32,695,030 cases, while in terms of deaths, Brazil comes second with 579,308 fatalities.

The other worst countries with over 3 million cases are Brazil (20,741,815), France (6,827,146), Russia (6,785,465), the UK (6,762,904), Turkey (6,329,519), Argentina (5,173,531), Colombia (4,905,258), Iran (4,926,964), Spain (4,831,809), Italy (4,530,246), Indonesia (4,073,831), Germany (3,940,212) and Mexico (3,328,863), the CSSE figures showed.

Nations with a death toll of over 100,000 are India (437,830), Mexico (257,906), Peru (198,115), Russia (178,457), the UK (132,760), Indonesia (131,923), Italy (129,093), Colombia (124,811), France (114,506), Argentina (111,383) and Iran (106,482).