India's active COVID-19 cases decline to 93,277, lowest in 559 days

New Delhi: With 7,992 people testing positive for the coronavirus in a day, India's COVID-19 tally climbed to 3,46,682,736, while the number of active cases declined to 93,277, the lowest in 559 days, according to Union health ministry data updated on Saturday.

The death toll mounted to 4,75,128 with the addition of 393 fatalities, according to the data updated at 8 am.

The daily rise in new coronavirus cases has been recorded below 15,000 for the last 44 days now.

The number of active cases has decreased to 93,277, comprising 0.27 per cent of the total infections, the lowest in 559 days, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate has been recorded at 98.36 per cent, the highest since March last year, the health ministry said.

The data stated that a decrease of 1,666 cases has been recorded in the active COVID-19 case count in a span of 24 hours.

The daily positivity rate has been recorded at 0.64 per cent and it has been less than two per cent for the last 68 days. The weekly positivity rate has been recorded at 0.71 per cent and it has been below one per cent for the last 27 days, according to the ministry.

The number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 3,41,14,331, while the case fatality rate was recorded at 1.37 per cent, it said.

The cumulative doses administered in the country so far under the COVID-19 vaccination drive has exceeded 131.99 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 the crore mark on December 19 last year.

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

The 393 new fatalities include 340 from Kerala, and 12 from Maharashtra.

Of the 340 deaths in Kerala, 31 were logged on Friday and 309 were designated as COVID-19 deaths after receiving appeals based on the new guidelines of the Centre and the directions of the Supreme Court, according to a state government release.

A total of 4,75,128 deaths have been reported so far in the country, 1,41,223 from Maharashtra, 42,579 from Kerala, 38,255 from Karnataka, 36,586 from Tamil Nadu, 25,100 from Delhi, 22,913 from Uttar Pradesh and 19,584 from West Bengal.

The ministry said that more than 70 per cent of the deaths have 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.