India reports 42,618 new COVID infections, 330 deaths; active cases cross 4 lakh-mark

New Delhi: India logged 42,618 new COVID cases and 330 deaths in the last 24 hours, the Union Health Ministry said on Saturday.

The daily positivity rate of the infection rose to 2.5 per cent. The active caseload rose by 5,903. Now, the country currently houses 4,05,681 active cases, as per the health Ministry's daily COVID bulletin.

The share of active cases now stands at 1.23 per cent of the total Covid-19 cases, the figures showed.According to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Kerala and Maharashtra are driving 75 per cent of the total active cases.

"Kerala is contributing 60 per cent as over 2.3 lakh cases are present in the state while Maharashtra added 15 per cent with more than 55,000 cases to the tally of active infection," Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan had informed during a press briefing held on Thursday.The latest addition has pushed the cumulative case tally to 3,29,45,907 whereas the death toll has climbed to 4,40,225, according to the data.

Meanwhile, 36,385 more people recovered from the Covid-19 in the last 24 hours making the recovery registry climb to 3,21,00,001. As per the data, the recovery rate is now reduced to 97.43 per centThe ministry stated that the weekly positivity rate (2.63 per cent) has been under 3 per cent for 71 days now.

A total of 52,82,40,038 samples were tested up to September 3, 2021, for Covid-19. Of these, 17,04,970 samples were tested on Friday, according to the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).(UNI)