India logs 45,083 new COVID-19 cases, 460 deaths

New Delhi, Aug 29: India added 45,083 new coronavirus infections taking the total tally of COVID-19 cases to 3,26,95,030, while active cases registered an increase for the fifth consecutive day, according to the Union health ministry data updated on Sunday.
The death toll has climbed to 4,37,830 with 460 fresh fatalities, according to the data updated at 8 am.
The active cases have increased to 3,68,558 comprising 1.13 per cent of the total infections, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate was recorded at 97.53 per cent, the ministry said. An increase of 8,783 cases has been recorded in the active COVID-19 caseload in a span of 24 hours. As many as 17,55,327 tests were conducted on Saturday taking the total cumulative tests conducted so far for detection of COVID-19 in the country to 51,86,42,929.
The daily positivity rate was recorded at 2.57 per cent. It has been less than three per cent for the last 34 days. The weekly positivity rate was recorded at 2.28 per cent. It has been below three per cent for the last 65 days, according to the ministry. The number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 3,18,88,642, while the case fatality rate stands at 1.34 per cent, the data stated.
Cumulatively, 63.09 crore COVID-19 vaccine doses have been administered under the nationwide vaccination drive till Sunday morning.
India’s COVID-19 tally had crossed the 20-lakh mark on August 7, 2020, 30 lakh on August 23, 40 lakh on September 5 and 50 lakh on September 16. It went past 60 lakh on September 28, 70 lakh on October 11, crossed 80 lakh on October 29, 90 lakh on November 20 and surpassed the one-crore mark on December 19.
India crossed the grim milestone of two crore on May 4 and three crore on June 23.
More than 73.8 lakh doses have been administered in a 24 hours span, according to the ministry.
The 460 new fatalities include 153 from Kerala and 126 from Maharashtra.
A total of 4,37,830 deaths have been reported so far in the country including 1,37,026 from Maharashtra, 37,261 from Karnataka, 34,856 from Tamil Nadu, 25,080 from Delhi, 22,807 from Uttar Pradesh, 20,466 from Kerala and 18,417 from West Bengal.
The ministry stressed that more than 70 per cent of the deaths occurred due to comorbidities.
“Our figures are being reconciled with the Indian Council of Medical Research,” the ministry said on its website, adding that state-wise distribution of figures is subject to further verification and reconciliation.

Kerala records 29,836 fresh infections

After reporting over 30,000 cases for four consecutive days, Kerala on Sunday recorded 29,836 fresh infections which pushed the total infection count in the state to 40,07,408. The test positivity rate rose closer to 20 per cent and with 75 deaths, the number of fatalities increased to 20,541, a state government release said. As many as 22,088 people have been cured of the infection since Saturday, taking the total recoveries to 37,73,754 and the number of active cases to 2,12,566, the release said. In the last 24 hours, 1,51,670 samples were tested and the TPR was found to be 19.67 per cent. So far, 3,12,75,313 crore samples have been tested, it said.
Among districts, Thrissur recorded the highest with 3,965 cases followed by Kozhikode (3,548), Malappuram (3,190), Ernakulam (3,178), Palakkad (2,816), Kollam (2,266), Thiruvananthapuram (2,150), Kottayam (1,830), Kannur (1,753), Alappuzha (1,498), Pathanamthitta (1,178), Wayanad (1,002) and Idukki 962.
Of the new cases, 98 were health workers, 229 from outside the state and 28,372 infected through contact, with the source of the contact not being clear in 1,137 cases, the release said.