India reports 11,903 new Covid cases, 311 daily fatalities

New Delhi: India's COVID-19 tally reached 3,43,08,140 with a single-day rise of 11,903 new infections, while the number of active cases declined to 1,51,209, the lowest in 252 days, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Wednesday.

The death toll has climbed to 4,59,191 with 311 daily fatalities, the data updated at 8 am showed.

The daily rise in new coronavirus infections has been below 20,000 for 26 straight days and less than 50,000 daily new cases have been reported for 129 consecutive days now.

The number of active cases has declined to 1,51,209, comprising 0.44 per cent of the total infections, the lowest since March 2020, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate was recorded at 98.22 per cent, the highest since March 2020, the ministry said.

A decline of 2,567 cases has been recorded in the active COVID-19 case count in a span of 24 hours.

The daily positivity rate was recorded at 1.11 per cent. It has been less than 2 per cent for the last 30 days. The weekly positivity rate was also recorded at 1.18 per cent. It has been below 2 per cent for the last 40 days, according to the Health Ministry.

The number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 3,36,97,740, while the case fatality rate was recorded at 1.34 per cent.

The cumulative doses administered in the country so far under the nationwide COVID-19 vaccination drive has exceeded 107.29 crore.

India's COVID-19 tally had crossed the 20-lakh mark on August 7, 2020; 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 one crore on December 19.

India crossed the grim milestone of two crore COVID-19 cases on May 4 and three crore on June 23.

The 311 new coronavirus-linked fatalities include 187 from Kerala and 48 from Maharashtra.

Of the 187 deaths, 45 were reported over the last few days, 87 were those which were not confirmed until June 18 last year due to lack of adequate documentation and 55 were designated as COVID deaths after receiving appeals based on the new guidelines of the Centre and Supreme Court directions, a Kerala government release said on Tuesday.

A total of 4,59,191 deaths have been reported so far in the country including 1,40,274 from Maharashtra, 38,089 from Karnataka, 36,157 from Tamil Nadu, 32,236 from Kerala, 25,091 from Delhi, 22,901 from Uttar Pradesh and 19,160 from West Bengal.

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.