India sees 20,279 new Covid cases, 5.3% lower than yesterday; 36 deaths in 24 hours

India’s cumulative Covid-19 tally is at 43,888,755 after as many as 20,279 people tested positive in the last 24 hours, a Union health ministry bulletin showed on Sunday.

The latest daily caseload is over 1,100 cases fewer (down 5.3%) than the corresponding figures from the preceding 24-hour-period, when 21,411 people returned positive test result.

Meanwhile, a day after the total number of active patients crossed the 150,000-mark, their numbers surged further to 152,200, an addition of 2,100 patients, the bulletin also showed. The virus also claimed 36 lives in a day, while the total recovery count went up by 18,143, with the respective tallies rising to 526,033 and 43,210,522.

While recoveries account for 98.45% of the overall caseload, deaths and active patients account for 1.20% and 0.35% respectively.

A total of 383,657 samples were tested on Friday, of which 20,279 tested positive, which means that the daily positivity rate stood at 5.3% as well.

In the last 24 hours, more than 2.8 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines were administered, which took the nationwide vaccination coverage close to 2.02 billion, of which 929.4 million are second doses and 71.8 million are precautionary/booster or third shots.

The nationwide inoculation drive commenced on January 16, 2021. This year, on July 17, the country achieved the historic landmark of 2 billion doses, taking just 18 months to reach the mark.