Coronavirus / India's COVID-19 recovery rate currently at 97.45%; 45,352 new cases recorded

New Delhi: India recorded 45,352 new cases of coronavirus disease (Covid-19) in the last 24 hours, lower than Thursday's 47,092 infections, even as Kerala continued to contribute the lion's share to the tally, according to the Union ministry of health and family welfare on Friday. The fresh Covid-19 cases and 366 fatalities have pushed the country's tally to 32,903,289 and the death toll to 439,895.

Of the 45,352 fresh Covid-19 infections and 366 deaths reported across the country in the last 24 hours, Kerala recorded 32,097 cases and 188 fatalities. Kerala has been reporting in excess of 30,000 daily cases for the past few days. The southern state's infection count now stands at 41,22,133 and deaths at 21,149.

The new Covid-19 cases in Kerala include 98 health workers, 102 people from outside the state and the remaining 30,456 have been infected through contact with the source of the contact not being clear in 1,441 cases.

Active cases in India rose by 10,195 to stand at 399,778 in the same period, according to data released by the health ministry at 8am. Active cases constitute 1.19 per cent of total cases and the national Covid-19 recovery rate stands 97.48 per cent, the Union health ministry said.

As many as 16,66,334 Covid-19 tests were conducted on Friday, taking the total number of tests conducted so far to 52,65,35,068. The number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 32,063,616 while the case fatality rate stands at 1.34 per cent, it said.

The health ministry on Friday said that more than 650 million Covid-19 vaccine doses have been provided to states and Union territories so far by the Centre for free and under the direct state procurement category. "Twelve million doses are in the pipeline. Around 43.6 million balance doses are still available with the states/union territories," it added.

The Covid-19 vaccination drive has been ramped up through the availability of more vaccines, advanced visibility of vaccine availability to states and Union territories for enabling better planning by them and streamlining the vaccine supply chain. The new phase of universalisation of vaccination commenced on June 21.