COVID-19: India reports 3,614 new cases; 89 more deaths
India on Saturday reported over 3,600 new COVID-19 cases, marking a decline of around 500 cases from the previous day. The active caseload in the country currently stands at 40,559, which accounts for 0.09% of the total cases. In the past 24 hours, a total of 3,614 new cases and 89 fatalities were reported. Meanwhile, India's COVID-19 recovery rate has increased to 98.71%.
Why does this story matter?
India on Saturday reported the lowest daily COVID-19 cases since May 12, 2020. This comes as India has been witnessing an improvement in the COVID-19 situation, indicated by declining active cases and weekly positivity rate. Notably, India witnessed a massive spurt in coronavirus infections in December-end and at the beginning of January. The spike in cases—dubbed India's third wave—was attributed to the Omicron variant.
Over 5K patients discharged
According to data shared by the Union Health Ministry, India reported a total of 4,29,87,875 COVID-19 cases till Saturday morning, while the cumulative death count reached 5,15,803. With 5,185 fresh discharges, the number of total recoveries in the country climbed to 4,24,31,513. The daily positivity rate and the weekly positivity rate were recorded at 0.44% and 0.52%, respectively.
Kerala adds most new cases
Maharashtra reported 318 new COVID-19 cases along with 355 more recoveries. Kerala, the second worst-hit state after Maharashtra, reported 1,175 new cases and 1,612 discharges. The third worst-hit Karnataka added 181 fresh cases and 260 recoveries. Tamil Nadu, the fourth worst-hit state, witnessed 112 new cases and 327 discharges. Meanwhile, Andhra Pradesh reported 46 new cases and 134 recoveries.
India's second wave peaked on May 7
India's second wave peaked on May 7, 2021, when 4.14 lakh single-day cases were reported, over four times the number of cases reported during the first wave in mid-September 2020. Although infections declined after the second wave peaked, India crossed the three-crore mark on June 23. The country crossed the one-crore mark on December 19, 2020, and the two-crore mark on May 4, 2021.
Over 179 crore vaccine doses administered
As of Saturday morning, India administered over 179.8 crore COVID-19 vaccine doses. Overall, over 81 crore people have been fully vaccinated, while more than 96.8 crore people have received one dose. On Saturday alone, India administered over 4.8 lakh COVID-19 vaccine doses till 11:30 am, including over four lakh second doses and more than 50,000 first doses, according to Co-WIN.
Nearly 2 crore 'precautionary' doses administered
Meanwhile, India has administered over 1.99 crore "precautionary" doses since January 10. On Saturday, over 10,000 healthcare/frontline workers and more than 20,000 elderly people were given the precautionary dose till 11:30 am.
18M COVID-19-related deaths worldwide; 4.1M In India: Study
Meanwhile, the pandemic's death count may be three times higher than what official COVID-19 records suggest, according to a study published in Lancet medical journal. Researchers found 18.2 million people probably died from COVID-19 in the first two years of the pandemic. Notably, India accounted for 22% of global COVID-19-related deaths or 4.1 million of these fatalities.
