COVID-19: India reports 43,263 new infections; Kerala, Maha top contributors

New Delhi: A surge in daily Covid-19 cases is reported after India logged 43,263 new cases and 338 deaths in the last 24 hours, according to the Union Health Ministry's data updated on Thursday.

The latest addition has pushed the cumulative case to 3,31,39,981 while the death toll climbed to 4,41,042.

The spike in new cases has come after Kerala and Maharashtra saw an increase in their Covid caseload.

On Wednesday, Kerala reported 30,196 new cases, pushing the total infections in the state to 42,83,494. It recorded 181 deaths, which took the total fatalities till now to 22,001.

Meanwhile, Maharashtra reported 4,174 new cases and 65 deaths in the day.

The daily positivity rate of the infection has risen to 2.38 per cent in the country while the active cases remained under 4 lakh, as per the health ministry's bulletin.

The cumulative active caseload now stands at 3,93,614, which makes 1.19 per cent of the total Covid-19 cases, the figures showed.

The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare stated last week that Kerala and Maharashtra are driving around 75 per cent of the total active cases.

Meanwhile, 40,567 more people recovered from the Covid-19 in the last 24 hours making the recovery registry climb to 3,23,04,618. As per the data, the recovery rate stands at 97.48 per cent

The ministry stated that the weekly positivity rate (2.43 per cent) has been under 3 per cent for 76 days now.

A total of 53,68,17,243 samples were tested up to September 8, 2021, for Covid-19. Of these, 18,17,639 samples were tested on Wednesday, according to the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).

Meanwhile, the Covid-19 vaccination coverage has exceeded 71.65 crore.

"With the administration of 86,51,701 vaccine doses in the last 24 hours, country’s COVID-19 vaccination coverage surpassed the cumulative figure of 71.65 Cr (71,65,97,428), as per provisional reports till 7 am today. 'This has been achieved through 73, 56,173 sessions," the ministry said. (UNI)