New Delhi: The Union Health Ministry on Wednesday recorded total 20,550 new COVID-19 cases and 286 deaths in the last 24 hours. This takes the total number of active coronavirus cases in the country to 1,02,44,853. Meanwhile, the overall death toll to the disease has surged to 1,48,439.
Earlier in the day, total 20 people who returned to India from the United Kingdom have tested positive for the new UK variant genome of SARS-CoV-2 so far. The tally includes six people who were found positive for the new virus strain on Tuesday.
The number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 98,34,141 pushing the national recovery rate to 95.99 per cent, while the COVID-19 case fatality rate stands at 1.45 per cent.
The COVID-19 active caseload remained below 3 lakh for the ninth consecutive day.
There are 2,62,272 active coronavirus infections in the country which comprises 2.56 per cent of the total caseload, the data stated.
India’s COVID-19 tally had crossed the 20-lakh mark on August 7, 30 lakh on August 23, 40 lakh on September 5 and 50 lakh on September 16. It went past 60 lakh on September 28, 70 lakh on October 11, crossed 80 lakh on October 29, 90 lakh on November 20 and surpassed the one-crore mark on December 19.
According to the ICMR, 17,09,22,030 samples have been tested up to December 29 with 11,20,281 samples being tested on Tuesday.
(With Agency Inputs)