India reports 16,561 new Covid cases, 49 deaths

In the last 24 hours, India reported 16,561 new Covid-19 cases and 53 deaths, the Union Health Ministry said on Friday.

With the latest fatalities, the nationwide death toll now stands at 5,26,928.

The active caseload has declined to 1,23,535, accounting for 0.28 per cent of the country's total positive cases.

The recovery of 18,053 patients in the last 24 hours took the cumulative tally to 4,35,73,094. Consequently, India's recovery rate stands at 98.53 per cent.

While the daily positivity rate also declined to 5.44 per cent, the weekly positivity rate stood at 4.88 per cent.

Also in the same period, a total of 3,04,189  tests were conducted across the country, increasing the overall tally to over 87.95 crore.

As of Thursday morning, India's Covid-19 vaccination coverage exceeded 207.47 crore.