COVID-19: India reports 2,568 new cases; 97 more deaths
India on Tuesday reported over 2,500 new COVID-19 cases, a slight increase of around 60 cases from the previous day. The active caseload in the country currently stands at 33,917, which accounts for 0.08% of the total cases. In the past 24 hours, a total of 2,568 new cases and 97 fatalities were reported. Meanwhile, India's COVID-19 recovery rate has increased to 98.72%.
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India on Tuesday reported a few more cases than the day before. However, India's improving COVID-19 situation continues to be reflected by declining active cases and positivity rates. 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 4,000 patients recovered
According to data shared by the Union Health Ministry, India reported a total of 4,29,96,062 COVID-19 cases till Tuesday morning, while the cumulative death count reached 5,15,974. With 4,722 fresh discharges, the number of total recoveries in the country climbed to 4,24,46,171. The daily positivity rate and the weekly positivity rate were recorded at 0.37% and 0.46%, respectively.
Kerala adds most new cases
Maharashtra reported 157 new COVID-19 cases along with 298 more recoveries. Kerala, the second worst-hit state after Maharashtra, reported 809 new cases and 1,597 discharges. The third worst-hit Karnataka added 106 fresh cases and 337 recoveries. Tamil Nadu, the fourth worst-hit state, witnessed 86 new cases and 204 discharges. Meanwhile, Andhra Pradesh reported 26 new cases and 85 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 180 crore vaccine doses administered
As of Tuesday, India administered over 180.3 crore COVID-19 vaccine doses. Overall, over 81.4 crore people have been fully vaccinated, while more than 96.8 crore people have received one dose. On Tuesday alone, India administered over 3.18 lakh COVID-19 vaccine doses till 11 am, including over 2.5 lakh second doses and more than 32,000 first doses, according to Co-WIN.
Over 2 crore 'precautionary' doses administered
Meanwhile, India has administered over 2 crore "precautionary" doses since January 10. On Tuesday, over 6,800 healthcare/frontline workers and more than 23,500 elderly people were given the precautionary dose till 11 am.
21.5M people lost jobs in tourism sector due to pandemic
Around 21.5 million people involved in the tourism sector lost their jobs due to the three waves of COVID-19 infections since 2020, Union Tourism Minister G Kishan Reddy said on Monday. "There were 14.5 million job losses during the first wave, 5.2 million job losses in the second wave, and 1.8 million job losses in the third wave," Reddy told the Parliament.
