India's active Covid cases fall below 9 lakh after a month

New Delhi: The number of active COVID-19 cases in the country has fallen below the nine lakh-mark for the first time in a month and it comprises merely 12.94 per cent of the total caseload, the Union Health ministry said on Friday.

The declining trend of the percentage of active cases is commensurately supported by the rising percentage of recovered cases. Recoveries in India have exceeded new cases for three continuous weeks, it said.

"Presently, the active cases stand at 8,93,592 and comprise merely 12.94 per cent of the total positive cases of the country, demonstrating a steady falling percentage of the total cases," the ministry said.

The country had 8.97 lakh active cases on September 9, it said.

A total of 59,06,069 people have recovered from COVID-19 in the country so far and recoveries exceed active cases of infection by 50,12,477, according to the ministry.

The higher number of recoveries has aided the national recovery rate to further improve to 85.52 per cent, the ministry said.

A total of 78,365 patients recovered and were discharged the previous day, while 70,496 fresh infections were reported, according to official data updated at 8 am.

"New recoveries in India have exceeded the new cases of COVID-19 for three continuous weeks. The new cases during these three weeks have displayed a steady trend of decline," the ministry underlined.

This is the result of collaborative action by states and Union Territories under the Centre's strategy of comprehensive testing, tracking, quick hospitalisation and adherence to the standard treatment protocol which has ensured a standardised quality of medical care across public and private hospitals and for home isolation cases.

The ministry said 78 per cent of the 70,496 new cases registered the previous day were reported from 10 states and UTs — Maharashtra, Karnataka, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Odisha, Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Delhi.

Maharashtra continues to report a very high number of new cases with more than 13,000 cases, followed by Karnataka with more than 10,000 cases, it said.

Also, 964 case fatalities were reported the previous day. Of these, nearly 82 per cent are concentrated in 10 states and UTs — Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab and Kerala, it added.