India reports 1.49 lakh daily new cases in 24 hrs, death toll surpasses 5-lakh mark

India's total COVID-19 death toll breached the five-lakh mark as the country logged 1,072 fresh fatalities along with 1,49,394 fresh COVID cases in the last 24 hours, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare informed on Friday.

New Delhi: India has reported 1,49,394 new COVID cases in the last 24 hours, 13% lower than yesterday, the Union Health Ministry informed on Friday. With this, the active caseload of India is presently at 14,35,569. However, 1072 people succumbed to the infection in the last 24 hours thereby taking the death toll to 5,00,055. According to the Ministry, the weekly positivity rate in the country currently stands at 12.03 per cent, while the daily positivity rate is reported to be 9.27 per cent.

With 1,42,859 deaths, Maharashtra has reported the most fatalities in the country, followed by Kerala (56701), Karnataka (39,197), Tamil Nadu (37,666), Delhi (25,932) and Uttar Pradesh (23,277). The cumulative COVID-19 caseload reported in the country has risen to 4,19,52,712 including 14,35,569 active cases. Active cases account for 3.42 per cent of the total cases.

As many as 2,46,674 recoveries were reported in the last 24 hours thereby taking the total recoveries in the country to 4,00,17,088. The recovery rate currently is at 95.39 per cent. Of the 16,11,666 tests conducted in the last 24 hours, a daily positivity rate of 9.27 per cent was reported. Moreover, 73.58 crore total tests have been conducted so far. The ministry informed that as many as 168.47 crore vaccine doses have been administered so far under the nationwide vaccination drive.