New Delhi: The overall active case count in India fell to just over 3.3 lakh Wednesday, even as the number of new Covid-19 cases remained below 30,000.
However, the number of cases detected from Kerala Wednesday rose to over 5,000 resulting in an increase in the active cases in the state once again. This is worrisome since Kerala already has the second-highest number of active Covid-19 cases in India.
Daily cases
The number of Covid-19 cases detected over the last 24 hours stood at 26,382.
Active cases
As recoveries continued to outnumber new Covid-19 cases, the active cases in the country fell to 3,32,002 Wednesday. This accounts for just 1.6 per cent of the total Covid-19 cases currently active across the world.
Number of deaths
In the last 24 hours, 387 Covid-19 deaths were reported from across the country, bringing the coronavirus death toll to 1,44,096 since the beginning of the pandemic.
Mortality rate
Punjab’s case fatality rate (CFR) continues to be 3.17, the highest in the country.
Meanwhile, Maharashtra — the state with the highest number of Covid-19 deaths — has the second highest CFR of 2.56.
Sikkim follows Maharashtra with a CFR of 2.21, although the state has reported just one death since 11 December. India’s overall case fatality rate is now 1.45.
Daily tests
On Wednesday, the number of Covid-19 tests conducted over the last 24 hours increased to 10,85,625. Since the beginning of the pandemic, a total of 15,66,46,280 Covid-19 tests have been carried out in the country.
Positivity rate
A day after the test positivity rate dipped to a five-month low of 2.2, it increased slightly to 2.4 per cent Wednesday. The overall positivity rate, calculated since the beginning of the pandemic, now stands at 6.3 per cent.
Recovered cases
In the last 24 hours, 33,813 Covid-19 patients have been discharged from hospitals. Since the beginning of the pandemic, 94,56,449 people in India have recovered from Covid-19 infection, bringing India’s recovery rate to 95.21 per cent.
Total cases
The total number of Covid-19 cases detected in India so far is 99,32,547, which is second only to the US.
States with the highest active cases
Maharashtra’s active Covid-19 cases declined to 72,458 Wednesday even though the state continues to have the highest number of active cases.
As many as 3,442 people tested positive for Covid-19 in the last 24 hours, bringing the total number of cases detected in the state, since the beginning of the pandemic, to 18,86,807.
The state also has the highest number of Covid-19 deaths, with 48,339 people having succumbed to the disease so far. As many as 70 deaths were reported in the last 24 hours.
In Kerala, the number of people who have tested positive for Covid-19 in a single day rose to 5,218 Wednesday. It is the highest number of new cases detected in a single day among states Wednesday. This caused the active cases in the state to increase to 57,909.
The total number of coronavirus cases detected in the state so far is 6,77,255, of which 2,680 have died. As many as 33 deaths were reported in the last 24 hours.
West Bengal’s active caseload fell to 20,663 Wednesday, the third highest in the country. The state reported 2,289 new cases and 45 deaths in the last 24 hours.
This brought the total number of cases detected from the state so far to 5,25,918 and the death toll to 9,145.
In Uttar Pradesh, as many as 1,336 people have tested positive for Covid-19 in the last 24 hours, bringing the total number of cases detected in the state to 5,68,064.
Active cases in the state dropped to 18,382, while death toll climbed to 8,103, as 20 deaths were reported in the last 24 hours.
Chhattisgarh, which was witnessing sustained increase in the number of Covid-19 cases till Monday, saw a decline in its active Covid-19 case count to 17,637.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, 2,60,240 people have been infected with Covid-19 in the state, of which 3,135 people have died. In the last 24 hours, 1,605 people have tested positive for the disease, while 19 people in the state have lost their lives.
Subscribe to our channels on YouTube & Telegram
Why news media is in crisis & How you can fix it
India needs free, fair, non-hyphenated and questioning journalism even more as it faces multiple crises.
But the news media is in a crisis of its own. There have been brutal layoffs and pay-cuts. The best of journalism is shrinking, yielding to crude prime-time spectacle.
ThePrint has the finest young reporters, columnists and editors working for it. Sustaining journalism of this quality needs smart and thinking people like you to pay for it. Whether you live in India or overseas, you can do it here.