India on Wednesday witnessed a surge in new Covid cases from 25,467 cases reported as of Tuesday to 37,593 fresh infections on Wednesday, registering an equally dismal surge in deaths from 354 deaths to 648 deaths in one day.
As per the Covid bulletin released by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, India has been reporting less than 30,000-mark for some days but the sudden increase by more than 10,000 show a sharp increase in the numbers.
India's recovery rate from the Covid infection stands at 97.67 per cent. The total active caseload has seen a marginal growth of 2,776 in the last 24 hours and currently stands at 3,22,327.
At 0.99 per cent, active cases presently form less than one per cent of the country's total positive cases, as per the bulletin released by the health ministry. A total of 34,169 patients were discharged from the hospitals and health centres in the last 24 hours, taking the total number of cured to 3,17,54,281 to the date in India.
The total death toll in the country stands at 4,35,758. The weekly positivity rate remains below 3 per cent for the last 61 days and currently stands at 1.92 per cent. The daily positivity rate continues to remain below 3 per cent for 30 continuous days and currently stands at 2.10 per cent.
India's Covid-19 vaccination coverage has surpassed the cumulative figure of 59.55 crore and stands at 59,55,04,593 as per provisional reports Wednesday morning. India has so far conducted over 51.11 crore cumulative tests.
Odisha reports 69 Covid deaths, 887 cases in 24 hrs
Odisha on Wednesday reported death of another 69 persons due to Covid-19, taking the death toll in the state to 7,562. According to State Covid-19 dashboard, the death of 25 persons were confirmed in Cuttack district while 21 deaths were reported in Jagatsinghpur, nine in Dhenkanal and 3 in Khurda & Balasore districts each.
Similarly, Angul, Ganjam & Puri districts reported two casualties each and once Covid-19 death was reported from both Bhadrak & Keonjhar districts, it says.
"This list does not reflect deaths occurring on a particular day. It gives details of past deaths for which the death audit process has been duly completed and the cause of death has been identified as due to Covid-19," the health department said.
The State also registered 887 fresh Covid-19 cases in the last 24 hours, of which, 131 are below 18 years of age. However, the test positivity rate (TPR) stood at 1.29 per cent. Khurda district continues to report the highest single-day Covid cases of 323 followed by Cuttack (119) and Balasore (56). All remaining districts reported below 50 cases.
With this, the Covid-19 tally surged to 10,03,210, of which 9,87,369 persons have been recovered from the disease. The active cases stood at 8,226 in the State.
Covid peaks in Kerala with daily tally at over 24K
As of yesterday, August 24, Kerala reported surge in daily Covid case numbers with 24,296 people testing Covid positive after 1,34,706 samples were tested. The state leads the country in new daily cases, the number of active cases, and the number of daily Covid deaths.
For the past three days, the daily positive cases had fallen after the state was celebrating Onam and fewer tests were being conducted. The day's figures were released shortly after a high level meeting of Vijayan and others to assess the situation decided that existing Covid protocols would not be tinkered with now, and that the already announced Sunday total lockdown in the state will continue.
Vijayan's statement also said that 19,349 people turned negative, taking the total active cases to 1,59,335. The day also saw a high of 173 Covid deaths, taking the total death toll to 19,757.
Karnataka reports 1,259 cases
Karnataka, however, reported 1,259 new Covid cases against 1,701 recoveries and 29 deaths in the last 24 hours. The state presently has 19,784 active Covid cases.
Bengaluru registered 295 new cases against 371 recoveries and 11 deaths in the past 24 hours. The city's active caseload presently stood at 7,582. Eleven children between 0 and 9 years and 29 between 10 and 19 years tested positive on Tuesday.
Global caseload tops 213 million
Meanwhile the global coronavirus caseload has topped 213 million, while the deaths have surged to more than 4.45 million and vaccinations soared to over 4.99 billion, according to the Johns Hopkins University.
In its latest update on Wednesday morning, the University's Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) revealed that the current global caseload, death toll and vaccination tally stood at 213,098,413, 4,450,408 and 4,995,430,625, respectively.
The US continues to be the worst-hit country with the world's highest number of cases and deaths at 38,053,653 and 630,663, respectively, according to the CSSE. In terms of infections, India follows in second place with 32,474,773 cases.
In terms of deaths, Brazil comes second with 575,742 fatalities, followed by India (435,110).
