India reports 40,120 new Covid cases and 585 deaths; recovery rate at 97.46%

NEW DELHI: India has reported 40,120 new Covid-19 cases and 585 deaths in the last 24 hours, a bulletin released by the Union government on Friday said.
The case tally has climbed to 3,21,17,826 and the current death toll is 4,30,254.

It said India's current active caseload is 3,85,227, adding that active cases constitute 1.20 per cent of total cases at present - the lowest since March 2020.

The country has also recorded the highest-ever recovery rate 97.46 per cent, the government said.
With 42,295 patients having recovered in the last 24 hours, the total number of patients having recuperated from the disease stands at 3,13,02,345.

The government release said the weekly positivity rate, currently at 2.13 per cent, has remained below 5 per cent. The daily positivity rate, at 2.04 per cent, has been less than 3 per cent since last 19 days.
The government also said that testing capacity in the country has been substantially ramped up, with a total of 48,94,70,779 samples having been tested for Covid up to August 12. Of these, 19,70,495 samples were tested on Thursday alone, the Indian Council of Medical Research said.

Vaccine update
With 57,31,574 doses of vaccines having been administered during the last 24 hours, the cumulative vaccine coverage in India has reached 52,95,82,956.
The government also said that as many as 55,01,93,040 vaccine doses have been provided to the states and UTs so far and that 59,16,920 more are in the pipeline.
Friday's bulletin also stated that 52,59,93,669 doses have been consumed and 2,82,57,130 more are still available with the states, UTs and hospitals to be administered.
The new phase of universalisation of Covid-19 vaccination commenced from June 21 this year.