New Delhi: India recorded less than 50,000 new Coronavirus infections, the lowest in 91 days, taking the total tally of cases to 2,99,77,861, while active cases fell below 7 lakh after 79 days, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Tuesday.
A total of 42,640 Covid infections were reported in a day, while the death toll climbed to 3,89,302 with 1,167 daily fatalities, the lowest in 68 days.
However, with nearly 40,000 new cases around 9.10 pm on June 22, India's cumulative COVID-19 tally crossed 3 crore and stood at 3,00,16,415.
In a significant achievement, India's cumulative COVID-19 vaccination coverage crossed the 29-crore mark on Tuesday.
As the new phase of universalisation of COVID-19 vaccination commenced from Monday, more than 53.4 lakh vaccine doses were administered on Tuesday, as per the 7 pm provisional report.
The active cases have further declined to 6,62,521, comprising 2.21 per cent of the total infections, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate has improved to 96.49 per cent, the data updated at 8 am showed.
A net decline of 40,366 cases has been recorded in the caseload in a span of 24 hours.
Also, 16,64,360 tests were conducted on Monday, taking the total cumulative tests conducted so far for detection of COVID-19 in the country to 39,40,72,142, while the daily positivity rate has declined to 2.56 per cent. It has been less than 5 per cent for 15 consecutive days, the ministry said.
The weekly positivity rate has declined to 3.21 per cent
Recoveries continued to outnumber daily new cases for 40 consecutive days.
The number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 2,89,26,038, while the case fatality rate stands at 1.30 per cent, the data stated.
Meanwhile, twenty-two cases of the Delta Plus variant of the Coronavirus have been detected in India, with 16 of them being reported from Maharashtra and the remaining from Madhya Pradesh and Kerala.
India is among the 10 countries where the Delta Plus mutation has been found so far, Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan said at a press briefing.
"Any variant's transmissibility and virulence decides whether it is a variant of concern or interest. Delta variant is found in 80 countries around the world, including India and it is a variant of concern.
"Delta Plus variant has been detected in nine countries besides India. In India, 22 cases of Delta Plus variant have been found and it is in the category of variant of interest, (and) not yet in the category of variant of concern," Bhushan said at the briefing.
However, a statement issued by the Union Health Ministry stated INSACOG had informed that the Delta Plus variant, "currently a variant of concern (VOC)", has these characteristics — increased transmissibility, stronger binding to receptors of lung cells and potential reduction in monoclonal antibody response.
Besides India, the Delta Plus variant has been found in the US, UK, Portugal, Switzerland, Japan, Poland, Nepal, China and Russia.
Bhushan said the Health Ministry has released an advisory on the kind of public health response that Maharashtra, MP and Kerala should initiate to address this issue which "presently looks fairly small in terms of number but we would not want this to assume significant proportions".
In response to a question at the press briefing, Bhushan said, "Broadly speaking, both the Indian vaccines -- Covishield and Covaxin -- are effective against Delta variant but to what extent and what is the proportion of antibody titers they produce, that information we would very shortly share."
Bhushan further informed that INSACOG has 28 laboratories and they have sequenced 45,000 samples, of which 22 cases of delta plus variant have been found.
"The labs of INSACOG bring this information to the notice of Health Ministry which then in timely and prompt manner indicates to the concerned states what are the activities that have to be initiated to curb the spread. The public health response is standardised for the variants," he said.
INSACOG, or Indian SARS-CoV-2 Consortium on Genomics, was set up to conduct genome sequencing of the coronavirus.