India on Friday registered a marginal decline in daily Covid caseload and recorded 40,120 fresh cases in the last 24 hours. India has achieved the highest recovery rate ever and currently stands at 97.46 per cent.
The country had logged 41,195 new infections over the last 24 hours on Thursday, which was the first time in the past seven days that the daily cases again crossed the 40,000-mark.
A total of 585 deaths were also reported in 24 hours, pushing the death toll to 19 to 4,30,254, said the Covid bulletin released by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Friday.
The active caseload has seen a dip of 2,760 and currently stands at 3,85,227. The active Covid caseloads constitute 1.20 per cent of total cases that is the lowest since March 2020, as per the bulletin released by the health ministry.
As per the data, total 42,295 patients were discharged from the hospitals and health centres in the last 24 hours, taking the total number of cured to 3,13,02,345 to the date in India.
The weekly positivity rate remains below 5 per cent and is currently at 2.13 per cent. The daily positivity rate continues to remain below 3 per cent for 19 continuous days and currently stands at 2.04 per cent.
Vaccination coverage
Meanwhile, India's Cumulative Covid vaccination coverage has exceeded 52.89 crore (52,89,27,844), as per the 7 p.m. provisional report on Thursday. A total of 57,31,574 doses of vaccines were administered in the last 24 hours, pushing the total vaccination so far at 52,95,82,956, said the bulletin released by the ministry.
27,83,649 vaccine doses were administered as first dose and 4,85,193 vaccine doses given as second dose in the age group 18-44 years. Cumulatively, 18,76,63,555 persons in the age group 18-44 years across 37 states/UTs have received their first dose and a total 1,39,23,085 have received their second dose since the start of Phase-3 of the vaccination drive.
Surge in UP's Maharajganj district
A major jump was seen in the number of Covid-19 cases in Maharajganj district of Uttar Pradesh, at a time when Covid cases across the state are declining and the state is on its way to becoming Covid free.
As per data, 10 cases have been reported in Maharajganj in the past 24 hours against one or two cases that were being reported since the past two weeks though all the new cases have no travel history and have not travelled beyond Gorakhpur which is about 55 kilometres from Maharajganj.
Overall, 43 new cases were reported in the past 24 hours in Uttar Pradesh, which is left with less than 500 active cases which is more than 99 per cent less than the peak figure of 3.10 lakh touched on April 30.
"In this exercise, the field health workers will cover villages under their domain to screen people with fever and get them tested for Covid infection. They will apprise people about the importance of Covid protocols," said Prasad.
