India recorded 20,549 coronavirus (Covid-19) cases and 286 related deaths in the last 24 hours which pushed the overall tally and death toll to 10,224,852 and 148,439, according to the Union health ministry’s dashboard on Wednesday. Today’s count is higher than that of yesterday by 25 per cent (4,117). However, the total active cases have further dropped to 262,272 and the recovery rate is nearing 96 per cent with over 9.83 million people discharged/cured till now, according to health ministry update at 8 am.
For the past three months, India has been seeing a downward trend in its daily coronavirus tally with an average of 22,000 cases added daily in the week ending December 27. The current numbers are far less than that of September when nearly 92,000 cases were being added in a span of 24 hours. Ten states and Union Territories (UTs) are contributing over 78 per cent of the new cases, the health ministry said adding that Kerala, Maharashtra and?Chattisgarh added the most number of cases.
Delhi continued to add less than 1,000 cases for the fifth consecutive day. On Tuesday, the national capital reported 703 cases and 28 deaths, according to the health department’s bulletin. The fatality rate has dropped to 1.68 per cent and 42,026 rapid antigen tests were conducted in last 24 hours. Chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday said that Delhi was ready to combat the new variant of Covid-19 which originated in the United Kingdom (UK).
“There have been three waves of Covid infections in Delhi. Over 8,000 cases were seen in a day in Delhi, which was the highest in the world. But Delhi was able to control it. We are ready for any situation now,” said Kejriwal.Meanwhile, the health ministry on Wednesday said that the total number of people who have tested positive for the UK variant has climbed to 20 and all have been placed under isolation. “The situation is under careful watch and regular advice is being provided to the states for enhanced surveillance, containment, testing and dispatch of samples to Insacog labs,” the ministry said in a statement. It added that close contacts and fellow passengers of the infected were being traced and placed under quarantine.