India records 48,698 fresh cases of COVID-19 in a day, weekly positivity rate falls below 3 per cent

NEW DELHI: A single-day rise of 48,698 COVID-19 infections took India's case tally to 3,01,83,143 while the weekly positivity rate declined to 2.97 per cent, according to Union Health Ministry data on Saturday.

The death toll climbed to 3,94,493 with 1,183 more people succumbing to the viral disease in a day. The number of active cases has further declined to 5,95,565 and now accounts for 1.97 per cent of the total infections, the data updated at 8 am showed.

Recoveries outnumbered daily new cases of COVID-19 for the 44th consecutive day with the number of people who have recuperated from the disease surging to 2,91,93,085. The case fatality rate stood at 1.31 per cent.

While the national COVID-19 recovery rate has improved to 96.72 per cent, the weekly case positivity rate has come down to 2.97 per cent. According to the Health Ministry data, the daily positivity rate was recorded at 2.79 per cent.

It has been less than 5 per cent for 19 consecutive days. India administered 61.19 lakh vaccine doses in a day taking the cumulative number of jabs given so far under the nationwide inoculation drive to 31.50 crore, according to immunisation data published at 7 am.

Also, 17,35,781 tests were conducted on Friday for the detection of COVID-19, taking the total number of tests conducted so far in the country to 39,95,68,448. India's COVID-19 tally had crossed the 20-lakh mark on August 7 last year, 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. The country crossed the grim milestone of two crore total COVID-19 cases on May 4 this year and three crore on June 23.