New Delhi,
India's COVID-19 tally of cases crossed 1.07 crore with 11,666 new coronavirus infections being reported in a day, while the national recovery rate climbed to 96.94 per cent, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Thursday.
The total infections have mounted to 1,07,01,193. The death toll increased to 1,53,847 with 123 daily new fatalities, the data updated at 8 am showed.
The number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 1,03,73,606 pushing the national COVID-19 recovery rate to 96.94 per cent. The COVID-19 case fatality rate stands at 1.44 per cent.
The COVID-19 active cases remained below 2 lakh for the ninth consecutive day.
There are 1,73,740 active coronavirus infections in the country which comprises 1.62 per cent of the total caseload, the data stated.
At least 147 districts in the country have not reported a case of COVID-19 in the last seven days, informed Dr Harsh Vardhan, Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare on Thursday.
During the 23rd meeting of the High-level Group of Ministers (GoM) on COVID-19, the Union Minister said: "In India, 147 districts have not seen a COVID-19 case in the last seven days, 18 districts in the last 14 days, six in the last 21 days, and 21 districts have not registered a case in the last 28 days."
During the meeting, the Health Minister also expressed satisfaction at the country's performance to combat COVID-19, stating that "Our fatality rate continues to be the lowest in the world at almost 1.44 per cent and 1,03,73,606 people have recovered from the virus, taking the recovery rate to nearly 97 per cent." He further informed that the country has 15,473 dedicated hospitals, health care facilities, and COVID-19 care centers with 19,00,714 beds and 12,673 quarantine centres.
On the ongoing coronavirus vaccination programme, he said, "We have completed 42,674 sessions of vaccinations all over the country. As many as 23,55,979 people have been administered the COVID-19 vaccines so far and 3,26,499 health workers have received the vaccines in the last 24 hours."
"The total number of cases in the country stands at 1,07,01,193 and in the last 24 hours, the country recorded 11,660 cases. Currently, 70 per cent of the current cases are from Maharashtra and Kerala. Karnataka and Tamil Nadu have slightly more than 500 cases and the rest of the places have less than 500 cases," he added.
Updating the GoM on the United Kingdom (UK) variant found in India, he mentioned that 153 cases have been diagnosed in the country and all the protocols to keep these cases under surveillance and in isolation are being followed.
India's COVID-19 tally had crossed the 20-lakh mark on August 7, 30 lakh on August 23, 40 lakh on September 5 and 50 lakh on September 16. It went past 60 lakh on September 28, 70 lakh on October 11, crossed 80 lakh on October 29, 90 lakh on November 20 and surpassed the one-crore mark on December 19.
According to the ICMR, 19,43,38,773 samples have been tested up to January 27 with 7,25,653 samples being tested on Wednesday.
The 123 new fatalities include 32 from Maharashtra, 20 from Kerala, 10 from Punjab and 9 from Delhi.
A total of 1,53,847 deaths have been reported so far in the country including 50,894 from Maharashtra followed by 12,333 from Tamil Nadu, 12,207 from Karnataka, 10,829 from Delhi, 10,139 from West Bengal, 8,636 from Uttar Pradesh and, 7,152 from Andhra Pradesh.
The health ministry stressed that more than 70 per cent of the deaths occurred due to comorbidities.
"Our figures are being reconciled with the Indian Council of Medical Research," the ministry said on its website, adding that state-wise distribution of figures is subject to further verification and reconciliation.