Active Covid cases increase to 1,48,922

New Delhi: India logged 12,729 new Coronavirus infections taking the country's tally of COVID-19 cases to 3,43,33,754 out of which 3,37,24,959 people have recuperated, while the active cases increased to 1,48,922, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Friday.

A rise of 343 cases has been recorded in the active COVID-19 caseload in a span of 24 hours.

The death toll climbed to 4,59,873 with 221 fresh fatalities that include 136 from Kerala and 32 from Maharashtra, while the case fatality rate was recorded at 1.34 per cent, according to the data updated at 8 am.

The daily rise in new Coronavirus infections has been below 20,000 for 28 straight days and less than 50,000 daily new cases have been reported for 131 consecutive days now.

The active cases comprise 0.43 per cent of the total infections, the lowest since March 2020, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate was recorded at 98.23 per cent, the highest since March 2020, the ministry said.

The daily positivity rate was recorded at 1.90 per cent. It has been less than two per cent for last 32 days. The weekly positivity rate was also recorded at 1.25 per cent. It has been below two per cent for the last 42 days, according to the ministry.

The cumulative doses administered in the country so far under the nationwide COVID-19 vaccination drive has exceeded 107.70 crore.

Biotechnology firm Novavax Inc said it has completed the rolling submission for the emergency use listing (EUL) of its COVID-19 vaccine candidate to the World Health Organization (WHO).

"The company has now completed the submission to World Health Organization (WHO) of all modules required for the regulatory evaluation of NVX-CoV2373, the company's recombinant nanoparticle protein-based COVID-19 vaccine with Matrix-M adjuvant," Novavax Inc said in a statement on Thursday.

The chemistry, manufacturing and controls module submitted to WHO, as well as other regulatory agencies worldwide, leverages Novavax' manufacturing partnership with the SII, the world's largest vaccine manufacturer by volume, it added.

Novavax will make further submissions to enable vaccine supply from additional manufacturing sites in Novavax' global supply chain. The filing by Novavax is in addition to a previous filing to WHO by Novavax and SII, the company said.