India logs 20,408 fresh COVID cases, 44 deaths

India logged a single day rise of 20,408 new coronavirus infections, pushing India's total tally of COVID-19 cases to 4,40,00,138, as the active cases declined to 1,43,384, the Union Health Ministry said on Saturday.

The death toll has climbed to 5,26,312 with 44 new fatalities, the data updated by the government at 8 am said.

The active cases comprise 0.33 per cent of the total infections, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate was recorded at 98.48 per cent, the health ministry said.

A decrease of 604 cases has been recorded in the active COVID-19 caseload in a span of 24 hours.

The daily positivity rate was recorded at 5.05 per cent. The weekly positivity rate was recorded at 4.92 per cent, according to the health ministry.

The number of people who recovered from the infection surged to 4,33,30,442, and the case fatality rate was recorded at 1.20 per cent.

According to the ministry, 203.94 crore doses of COVID vaccines have been administered in the country so far under the nationwide COVID-19 vaccination drive.

India's COVID-19 tally had crossed the 20-lakh mark on August 7, 2020, and surpassed the one-crore mark on December 19.

India crossed the grim milestone of two crore on May 4, 2021, three crore on June 23, and four crore on January 25 this year.

The 44 new fatalities include six each from Maharashtra and West Bengal, four each from Haryana and Karnataka, three each from Gujarat, Punjab, and Uttar Pradesh, two each from Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jammu and Kashmir, and Madhya Pradesh and one each from Chandigarh, Delhi, Goa, Himachal Pradesh, Kerala, Odisha and Sikkim.

A total of 5,26,312 deaths have been reported so far in the country including 1,48,097 from Maharashtra, 70,451 from Kerala, 40,143 from Karnataka, 38,032 from Tamil Nadu, 26,308 from Delhi, 23,565 from Uttar Pradesh and 21,352 from West Bengal.

The health ministry has 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 the state-wise distribution of figures is subject to further verification and reconciliation.