With 19,078 new Covid-19 cases, India’s tally rises over 10.3 million

India reported 19,078 new cases of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) and 224 related deaths in the last 24 hours, according to the Union ministry of health and family welfare, which have taken the second worst-affected country’s tally to over 10.3 million. 

The dip in fresh Covid-19 infections, there were 20,035 on Friday morning, comes on a day India started a dry run for its vaccination programme across all states and Union territories, reports Hindustan Times. 

Data from the Union health ministry at 8am also showed that 22,926 patients of the viral disease recovered across the country taking the number of recoveries to 9,906,387, pushing the national recovery rate to 96.12%. It also showed that there are 250,183 active cases of the coronavirus disease and the death toll rose to 149,218 with the case fatality rate at 1.45%. The 224 fatalities were also lower than Friday’s toll at 256.

The number of active Covid-19 cases remained below 300,000 for the 12th consecutive day with 250,183 active cases in the country, which accounts for 2.43% of the total caseload, the health ministry’s data showed.

Maharashtra, the worst-affected state, reported 3,524 new Covid-19 cases and 59 deaths in the last 24 hours. There are now 52,084 active cases in the state, the health department informed. So far, 1,832,825 people have recovered and the death toll stands at 49,580.

Kerala reported 4,991 new cases, 5,153 recoveries, and 23 deaths on Friday. With this, the total number of active cases in the state now stands at 65,054. Delhi saw 585 new coronavirus disease cases and 717 recoveries on Friday, according to its health department. The number of positive cases in the Capital is 625,954 and the death toll stands at 10,557. There are 5,358 active cases in the national capital.

India’s Covid-19 tally had crossed the 2 million mark on August 7, 3 million on August 23, 4 million on September 5 and 5 million on September 16. It went past 6 million on September 28, 7 million on October 11, 8 million on October 29, 9 million on November 20 and the 10 million mark on December 19.

The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has said that 17,39,41,658 samples were tested in the country for Covid-19 till January 1, including 829,964 on Friday.