India logs over 18,000 cases for 2nd day in a row, recovery rate drops

New Delhi: New cases of coronavirus infection in India were recorded above 18,000 for the second consecutive day on Sunday taking the country's tally of COVID-19 cases to 1,12,10,799.

The active cases registered an increase for the fifth consecutive day. The COVID-19 active caseload increased to 1,84,523 which now comprises 1.65 per cent of the total infections.

The recovery rate has dropped further to 96.95 per cent, the Union Health Ministry said on Sunday.

A total of 18,711 new infections were registered in a day, while the death toll increased to 1,57,756 with 100 daily new fatalities, the data updated at 8 am showed. Six states including Maharashtra, Kerala, Punjab and Gujarat are reporting high daily COVID-19 cases, accounting for 84.71 per cent of the 18,711 new cases. Maharashtra continues to report the highest daily new cases at 11,141. It is followed by Kerala with 2,791 while Punjab reported 1,159 new cases.

The Centre is continuously engaging with the states and UTs reporting higher caseload of active cases and those showing a rise in the daily new COVID cases, the ministry said.

It has deputed high-level teams to Maharashtra and Punjab, that are showing steep increase in the daily new cases. The other states reporting high daily COVID-19 cases are Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.

Eight states are displaying an upward trajectory in daily new cases, the ministry highlighted.

The number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 1,08,68,520 which translates to a national COVID-19 recovery rate of 96.95 per cent, while the case fatality rate stands at 1.41 per cent.

More than 2 crore vaccine doses have been administered through 3,39,145 sessions, as per the provisional report till Sunday 7 am.

These include 69,82,637 healthcare workers (HCWs) who have been administered the 1st dose, 35,42,123 HCWs who have been given the 2nd dose, 65,85,752 frontline workers (FLWs) who have taken the 1st dose and 2,11,918 FLWs (2nd Dose), 4,76,041 beneficiaries aged more than 45 years with specific co-morbidities (1st Dose) and 31,23,873 beneficiaries aged more than 60 years.