New Delhi: In a significant milestone India's active COVID-19 caseload has fallen below 7 lakh for the first time after two months (63 days), while the total recoveries have crossed 69 lakhs.
The recovered cases are nearly 10 times more than the active cases, the Union Health Ministry said on Friday. The active caseload was below the 7-lakh mark (6,97,330) last on August 22.
There are 6,95,509 active cases of Coronavirus infections in the country as of Friday, which comprise merely 8.96 per cent of the total caseload, according to ministry data updated at 8 am.
The total recovered cases have surged to 69,48,497 and exceed active cases by 62,52,988 as of date.
The data stated that a total of 73,979 patients have recovered and were discharged in a span of 24 hours, whereas 54,366 new infections were reported during the same period. The death toll climbed to 1,17,306 with 690 fatalities.
The national COVID-19 recovery rate has further progressed to 89.53 per cent. It said that as of Friday the case fatality rate stands at 1.51 per cent .
Twenty-four states and UTs have less than 20,000 active cases of COVID-19.
The ministry said 81 per cent of the new recovered cases are observed to be concentrated in 10 states and UTs which are Maharashtra, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal, Chhattisgarh, Delhi, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh.
India has crossed the 10 crore-mark in conducting tests for detection of COVID-19 with 14,42,722 tests being done in a span of 24 hours. The last 1 crore tests were conducted in nine days.
Meanwhile, official sources on Friday said that the Coronavirus vaccine, once available, will be distributed under a special COVID-19 immunisation programme with the Centre procuring the doses directly and making it available for priority groups free-of-charge through the existing network of states and districts.
States have been asked not to chart separate pathways of procurement, they said.
The Centre, with the help of state and union territory governments, has started the process of identifying around 30 crore priority beneficiaries who would be given the vaccine dose in the initial phase.
This special COVID-19 immunisation programme would run in parallel with the Universal Immunisation Programme, but will use its processes, technology and network of the existing vaccine distribution framework, sources said.
The government has demarcated four categories of people for vaccination in the initial phase — around one crore healthcare professionals including doctors, MBBS students, nurses and ASHA workers, etc.; around two crore frontline workers including municipal corporation workers, personnel of the police and armed forces; about 26 crore people aged above 50; and a special group of those below 50 years of age with co-morbidities and requiring specialised care.