India logs 38,628 nCoV cases, 617 deaths in past 24 hrs

New Delhi:India, in the past 24 hours, confirmed 38,628 new cases of Coronavirus and 617 deaths, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said on Saturday.

With the fresh numbers, the overall tally of positive cases has increased to 3,18,95,385 and fatalities to 4,27,371.

The active cases have declined to 4,12,153 and comprise 1.29 per cent of the total infections, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate was recorded at 97.37 per cent with over 31.05 million recoveries since the outbreak.

According to the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), a total of 17,50,081 tests was conducted on Friday, taking the total cumulative tests conducted so far for detection of COVID-19 in the country to 47,83,16,964,

The daily positivity rate was recorded at 2.21 per cent. It has been less than 3 per cent for the last 12 days. The weekly positivity rate was recorded at 2.39 per cent, according to the health ministry.

On the vaccination front, as many as 49,55,138 vaccine doses were administered in the last 24 hours, taking the cumulative toll to 50,10,09,609, a provisional report issued this morning said.

A day earlier, the country confirmed 44,643 new coronavirus cases, with 464 fatalities.

The Union government has said that the testing capacity has been substantially ramped up in India, adding that 47.83 crore tests have been conducted so far.

Meanwhile, The White House said that the Biden Administration is eager to continue partnership with India in fight against coronavirus and provide assistance in the form of vaccines.

The delay in providing vaccines to India from the United States is not because of Washington, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki told media.

Globally, India comes second in terms of the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases, following the United States with more than 35.69 million patients.

The World Health Organization declared the COVID-19 outbreak a pandemic on March 11, 2020. To date, more than 201.69 million people have been infected with the coronavirus worldwide, with over 4.27 million fatalities, according to Johns Hopkins University.(UNI)