India's daily count of new coronavirus infections fell to its lowest level in nearly six weeks in the past 24 hours, as the ferocious second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic appeared to be showing signs of receding.
On Tuesday, the country posted 196,427 new coronavirus cases over the last 24 hours, its lowest daily rise in infections since April 14, and less than half the 414,188 peak reported on May 7. The country's overall officially recorded case load since the start of the pandemic now stands at 26.95 million.
Deaths due to COVID-19 amounted to 3,511 in the last 24 hours, bringing the total since the start of the pandemic over a year ago to 307,231, according to health ministry data. The country’s fatality rate due to Covid-19 works out to 1.14 per cent of the total confirmed infections.
State-wise picture
Five states with the highest test positivity rate (TPR) – percentage of tested people turning out to be positive for Covid-19 are Goa (18.67%), Maharashtra (16.83%), Dadra & Nagar Haveli-Daman & Diu (13.88%), Kerala (12.53%), and Chandigarh (12.03%).
Vaccination drive
•India has so far administered 198,538,999 vaccine doses. That is 14.26 per cent of the country’s population has received at least one or both doses.
•Among Indian states, the top 5 in terms of number of vaccine shots administered are Maharashtra (25757579), Uttar Pradesh (21196939), Rajasthan (20937734), Gujarat (19655951), and West Bengal (17457335).