While Covid cases have been below the 19,000-mark for the last three days with Saturday recording 18, 840 infections, deaths have, nevertheless, shown a consistent surge during the same period.
On Saturday, the mortality figure was 43 compared to 38 on Friday. Prior to that, 35 people had succumbed to the disease. The death toll has climbed to 5,25,386, the data updated at 8 am stated.
India's Covid-19 case tally stood at 4,36,04,394 while the number of active cases increased to 1,25,028, according to Union Health Ministry data updated on Saturday. States like Odisha recorded 512 COVID-19 cases on Saturday, the highest in more than four months, taking the tally to 12,92,928. Ditto was the case with Jharkhand. The number of active COVID-19 cases crossed the 500-mark in Jharkhand after around four months as 132 more people tested positive for the infection. The fresh infections pushed the tally to 5,36,516. The count, however, remained unchanged at 5,321 as no fresh fatality was reported.
The overall test positivity rate jumped to 3.35 per cent from 2.77 as the cases were detected out of 15,265 samples. Fifty-nine children were among those afflicted with the disease, according to a bulletin. The 43 new fatalities include 19 from Kerala, seven from Maharashtra,
three each from Delhi and West Bengal, two each from Assam and Uttar Pradesh and one each from Goa, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Nagaland, Punjab, Sikkim and Uttarakhand. A total of 5,25,386 deaths have been reported so far in the country including 1,47,971 from Maharashtra, 70,108 from Kerala, 40,123 from Karnataka, 38,028 from Tamil Nadu, 26,280 from Delhi, 23,547 from Uttar Pradesh and 21,236 from West Bengal.
Active caseload increased by 2,693 in a day and now comprise 0.29 per cent of the total infections, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate was recorded at 98.51 per cent, the Ministry said. The daily positivity rate was 4.14 per cent while the weekly positivity rate was recorded at 4.09 per cent, according to the Ministry.