India reports a slight hike in new COVID cases; over 4.5 lakh tests conducted on Thursday

After recording a sustained downward trend in the daily COVID-19 infections, India reported a marginal increase in its daily infections. According to the Union Health Ministry's data for Thursday, India reported a slight surge in its daily tally with 1,109 fresh infections, as opposed to the 1,033 infections a day earlier. A total of 43 people succumbed to the virus in the country on Thursday, pushing its overall death toll to a grim 5,21,573.

A rise in COVID-19 cases

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Following a sustained decline, India's active caseload has reduced to 11,492, with active cases now accounting for a mere 0.03% of the country's total positive cases. The number of recoveries still surpasses the fresh cases, although marginally, at 1,213 in the last 24 hours, taking the cumulative recoveries to 4,25,00,002. Consequently, India's recovery rate now stands at 98.76%.

Early in the third wave, India started rapidly testing its citizens to detect early infections. Continuing on that trend, over 4,53,582 tests have been conducted across the country in the last 24 hours, pushing the testing tally to a whopping 79.29 crore.

COVID 4.O?

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Amid a continuous dip, the weekly positivity rate in India at present has fallen down to a mere 0.23%, while the daily positivity rate is also reported to be a scanty 0.24%. Fully armed to beat any unsuspecting surges, India's COVID-19 vaccination coverage surpassed the 185.38 crore mark on Friday. Notably, over 2.11 crore adolescents have been administered the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine so far.

-With inputs from IANS