India registers 48,648 new Covid-19 cases, slightly lower than Thursday

India reported 48,648 cases of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) and 563 related deaths in the last 24 hours, taking the country’s tally to 8,088,851, according to the Union health ministry’s data on Friday morning. The number of new cases was less than Thursday morning’s 603,687 but there were 46 more fatalities on Friday, which have raised the death toll to 121,090.

Active cases of the coronavirus disease stand at 594,386, down from 603,687 on Thursday morning, as of 8am on Friday, the health ministry’s dashboard showed. The health ministry has stressed that the declining trend of the active cases of Covid-19 is supported by a rising number of recovered cases in the country. The number of recovered cases is at 7,373,375 and the gap between recovered and active cases has crossed 6,778,989. The national recovery rate is at 91.15% now.

Also read | Grocery store workers at heightened risk of symptomless Covid-19 infections: Study

Data showed on Thursday morning that 56,480 Covid-19 patients had recovered and discharged and the ministry said that 79% of them were observed to be concentrated in 10 states and Union territories. Maharashtra had contributed the maximum with more than 8,000 single-day recoveries followed by Kerala with more than 7,000 recoveries.

Of the 49,881 new Covid-19 cases on Thursday, 79% were from 10 states and Union territories. Kerala continues to report a very high number of new cases with more than 8,000 cases followed by Maharashtra with more than 6,000 cases.

Also read | Covid-19: What you need to know today

There were 517 fatalities on Thursday morning and of these, nearly 81% are concentrated in 10 states and Union territories. Maharashtra had reported the maximum fatalities with 91 cases.

India has attributed the falling positivity rate, which is at 7.54% at present, to scaling up of its testing capacity from one in January to more than 106.5 million. The health ministry said on Thursday that with 10,75,760 tests conducted in the last 24 hours, the cumulative tests have crossed 10,65,63,440. Nearly 1.1 million tests have been conducted daily on an average during the past six weeks, it has said.

“India has demonstrated a consistent increase in the COVID-19 testing infrastructure since Jan 2020 resulting in an exponential increase in its testing numbers. The country’s testing capacities have been ramped up multiple times. 15 lakh tests can be done every day now,” it added.

Also read | Covid-19 vaccine update: Brazil expects vaccine by June 2021, Russia temporarily pauses trials

“As evidence has revealed, comprehensive and widespread testing on a sustained basis has resulted in bringing down the positivity rate. The sharp decline in the national cumulative positivity rate has demonstrated that the rate of spread of infection is being effectively contained. The cumulative positivity rate has been falling progressively and has touched 7.54% today,” it said.

The global coronavirus disease tally stands at 44.9 million cases and more than 1.18 million deaths. Europe, North America and Latin America account for more than 66% of global cases and over 76% of global deaths.