Ahead of Christmas, India logs 656 new Covid-19 cases

A day before Christmas, India saw a single-day rise of 656 COVID infections while the active cases have increased to 3,742, according to Union health ministry data updated on Sunday. The death toll was recorded at 5,33,333 with one new death reported from Kerala in 24 hours, the data updated at 8 am showed.

The country’s COVID case tally is 45 million (4,50,08,620). The number of people who have recuperated from the disease has increased to 44.47 million and the national recovery rate stands at 98.81%, according to the health ministry’s website.

Kerala, where the Covid sub-variant JN.1 was first detected, recorded the most number of active cases (126) in a single day, the ministry stated. Other states, including Karnataka (96), Maharashtra (35), Delhi (16), Telangana (11) and Gujarat (10), saw a spike in the daily active caseload, data showed.As many as 333 people recuperated from Covid-19 the previous day, taking the total number of recoveries to 4.44 crore (4,44,71,545). The national recovery rate stood at 98.81 per cent, according to the Health Ministry.The country's Covid-19 case tally is 4.50 crore (4,50,08,620).So far, 220.67 crore doses of Covid vaccines have been administered in the country, the Health Ministry said.