India’s COVID-19 tally crosses 96-lakh mark

The total coronavirus cases in India crossed the 96-lakh mark with 36,652 new COVID-19 infections on Saturday.

The overall COVID-19 cases reached 96,08,211, including 4,09,689 active cases and 90,58,822 recoveries.

Meanwhile, India reported less than 50,000 cases for the 28th day in a row. With 512 new deaths, the cumulative toll mounted to 1,39,700.

According to the ministry, calibrated and effective strategy of the Centre focused on high levels of testing, combined with early identification, timely tracing, isolation, and hospitalisation for the severe cases, have resulted in a manageable number of active cases and continuously rising number of recoveries. “India’s active cases have fallen below 4.2 lakhs, while the recovered cases have leapt past 90 lakhs,” the MoHFW said on Saturday.

India’s active caseload was 4.35 per cent of the total number of cases as on Friday. The last time the daily new cases crossed the 50,000-threshold was on November 7.

Meanwhile, the total number of tests for the COVID-19 conducted in the country reached 14,58,85,512, of which, 11,57,763 were conducted on Friday, according to the Indian Council of Medical Research.

Maharashtra has the maximum number of active cases in the country at 84,938, the Union Health Ministry said. A total of 17,10,050 people have also recovered from the coronavirus infection in the state, while 47,599 have lost their lives to it, it said.

In Delhi, the coronavirus situation has started to see considerable improvement. There were 28,252 active COVID-19 cases on Saturday. The national capital has reported 5,48,376 recoveries and 9,497 death till Saturday morning, said the Union Health Ministry.

On Friday, during an all-party meeting, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had said that the COVID-19 vaccine is expected in the next few weeks, and vaccination will start in India as soon as scientists give a green signal.