NEW DELHI: The number of tests conducted in the country for detection of COVID-19 has crossed 23 crore and the cumulative positivity rate was at 4.98 per cent, the Union Health Ministry said on Thursday.
India's tests per day per million population is more than 140 and the daily positivity rate is 3.37 per cent as of Thursday, it said, adding the country was fast approaching a milestone of immunising 4 crore people.
A total of 3,71,43,255 COVID-19 vaccine doses have been administered through 6,15,267 sessions, according to the provisional report till Thursday at 7 am.
These include 75,68,844 healthcare and 77,16,084 frontline workers who have been given the first dose, and 46,32,940 healthcare and 19,09,528 frontline workers who have taken the second.
Besides, 24,57,179 beneficiaries aged more than 45 years with specific comorbidities and 1,28,58,680 senior citizens have been administered the first dose.
More than 20 lakh vaccine doses were administered on day 61 of the vaccination drive.
Of these 17,38,750 beneficiaries were vaccinated across 28,412 sessions for the first dose and 3,39,969 healthcare and frontline workers received the second dose of vaccine.
India's total active caseload has reached 2,52,364 on Thursday, which was 2.20 per cent of the total infection.
"A net increase of 17,958 cases have been registered in the total active caseload in a span of 24 hours," the ministry said.
Maharashtra, Punjab, Karnataka, Gujarat and Tamil Nadu continued to report a surge in the daily COVID-19 cases, the ministry said adding 79.54 per cent of the new cases were from these five states.
The total number of cases infected with the UK, South Africa and Brazil variants of the SARS-Cov-2 in the country as of Thursday was 400.
The ministry said that 35,871 new cases were registered in a span of 24 hours till Thursday 8 am.
Maharashtra has reported the highest 16,620 daily new cases, accounting for 63.21 per cent of the new instances of the disease.
It is followed by Kerala with 1,792 cases and Punjab with 1,492, the ministry said.
"A rising trajectory of daily new cases is visible in eight states. These are Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Punjab, Madhya Pradesh, Delhi, Gujarat, Karnataka and Haryana. Kerala is reporting a consistently declining trend over the last one month," the ministry stated.
India's cumulative recoveries surged to 1,10,63,025 with 17,741 recoveries being registered in a span of 24 hours.
Of the 172 fatalities reported in a span of 24 hours, five states accounted for 84.88 per cent of the deaths.
Maharashtra saw a maximum of 84 deaths, followed by 35 in Punjab and 13 in Kerala.
The case fatality rate remained below 1.5 per cent and was continuously declining, the health ministry said.
Eighteen states and Union Territories have not reported any COVID-19 deaths in a day.
These are Rajasthan, Assam, Chandigarh, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Odisha, Jharkhand, Puducherry, Lakshadweep, Sikkim, Ladakh (UT), Manipur, Daman and Diu and Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Tripura, the Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Arunachal Pradesh.