India's COVID death toll crosses 4 lakh-mark

New Delhi: India reported 853 more COVID deaths in the past 24 hours, taking the total number of fatalities to 4,00,312, the Union Health Ministry said on Friday.

Besides, the country also added 46,617 new COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours, pushing the total number of infections to 30,458,251. The death toll stands at 1.31 per cent.

India became the third country after the US and Brazil to traverse the grim milestone of four lakh-mark. The US has recorded 6,04,000 deaths while around 5,18,000 people have died in Brazil.

On a positive front, 59,384 patients recuperated during the past 24 hours, pushing the number of recoveries to 2,95,48,302. With these new recoveries, recovery rate jumped from 96.97 per cent to 97.01 per cent.

Now, active cases further declined to 5,09,637, which constitute 1.67 per cent of the total cases, shows the data.

Meanwhile, weekly positivity rate is currently pegged at 2.57 per cent.Daily positivity rate was recorded at 2.48 per cent, less than five per cent for 25 consecutive days, the Ministry added.

According to the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), a total of 41,42,51,520 samples were tested so far for coronavirus. Of this, 18,80,026 were tested on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, 34,00,76,232 doses have been administered since January 16 this year, of which 42,64,123 were administered in the past 24 hours.(UNI)