Coronavirus / India sees lowest daily COVID-19 cases in 91 days as 42,640 people test positive

New Delhi: India on Tuesday recorded 42,640 cases and 1,167 deaths due to the coronavirus disease (Covid-19), taking the caseload and death toll to 29,977,861 and 389,302 respectively, according to the Union health ministry’s update at 8am. Tuesday's case count has been the lowest since March 20 this year, when 40,953 cases were reported.

Nearly 82,000 people recovered from the viral disease in the last 24 hours and the total recoveries have climbed to 28,926,038. The daily recoveries continued to outnumber the new cases for the 40th consecutive day.

The active cases have come down to 662,521 and constitute 2.35 per cent of the caseload.

Tuesday’s cases are 10,616 less than that of Monday’s when 53,256 people were detected Covid-19 positive, the lowest single day tally in more than 88 days. Meanwhile, the toll on Tuesday is 255 less than that of Monday’s when 1,422 people died.

A total of 394,072,142 samples have been tested for Covid-19 till now of which 1,664,360 were tested in the last 24 hours, according to the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).

The Centre on Monday began vaccinating citizens above the age of 18 free of cost at all government vaccination centres. And by 10pm, over 8 million doses had been administered, the highest in a single day since the nationwide vaccination drive began on January 16 this year. A majority of states and Union Territories (UTs) vaccinated the most people on Monday.

Dr NK Arora, the chairman of the National Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (NTAGI), told HT on Monday that the Centre will be prepared to vaccinate close to 10 million people per day by August.

Lauding the achievement of record single-day inoculations in the country, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Monday that vaccines remain the strongest weapon to fight the Covid-19 disease.

“Today’s record-breaking vaccination numbers are gladdening. The vaccine remains our strongest weapon to fight Covid-19. Congratulations to those who got vaccinated and kudos to all the front-line warriors working hard to ensure so many citizens got the vaccine. Well done India!” Modi tweeted on Monday.

The total vaccination figures have climbed to 28,876,6201, according to the data shared by the Union health ministry. Of these, 236,681,488 have received the first dose and the remaining 52,084,713 have received both the doses.