India on Tuesday recorded 31,118 new cases of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19), which pushed the nationwide tally to 9,462,809, according to Union health ministry update at 8 am.
The number of active cases dropped further, to 4,35,603, while 88,89,585 patients were discharged from hospitals in the last 24 hours, health ministry data showed. The number of recovered patients has now reached.
The country recorded 482 new fatalities due to the infection in the past 24 hours, the ministry said. With this, the death toll has reached 1,37,621.
India has conducted 140 million tests to detect Covid-19 in the past 11 months, of which 10 million tests were performed during the past 10 days alone, government data shows.
The first test to diagnose Covid-19 in the country was performed on January 23, and on Monday, India performed about 900,000 tests in a single day.India’s coronavirus tally had crossed the 9.4 million-lakh mark after 38,772 new infections were reported on Monday, as per the health ministry data.
On Sunday, the ministry had said that the national recovery rate stands at 93.71 per cent. It also said that India continues to have one of the lowest deaths per million population globally (presently 99).
Though the number of daily cases has declined in the last few weeks, the Centre is concerned about the states which have high caseload of the infection. The Union home ministry has framed a set of guidelines to check the further spread of the disease which came into effect from December 1. These guidelines will remain in place till December 31.
The health ministry has also released measures to ensure compliance to Covid-appropriate behaviour in markets.
The ministry has recommended imposing fines for not wearing masks or not following physical distancing, opening markets on alternate days and closing them if large number of coronavirus cases are reported along with other measures. The SOPs outlined that market places in containment zones shall remain closed. Shop owners and employees living in containment zones shall not be allowed entry into marketplaces, according to the ministry.