India's active COVID-19 cases dip below 2 pc of total cases

India continues on its steady trajectory of reporting a constant downfall in the daily new cases and a significant decline in the active cases.

According to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW), India's share of active cases within the total positive cases has shrunk below 2 per cent (1.98 per cent).

"In the last 24 hours, 15,144 daily cases have been recorded. The active caseload of the country has fallen to 2,08,826. The daily new cases have been below 20,000 for the past 10 days," it said.

17,170 new recoveries were registered during the last 24 hours. The share of recovered cases stands at 96.58 per cent. The total recovered cases are 10,196,885. They exceed the active cases by 99,88,059 (48.83 times more).

80.53 per cent of the new recovered cases are observed from 10 States/UTs.

Kerala has reported the highest number of recoveries with 5,011 newly recovered cases in a single day. 3,039 people recovered in Maharashtra in the past 24 hours followed by 930 in Uttar Pradesh.

81 per cent of the new cases are from 8 States and UTs.

Kerala continues to report the highest daily new cases at 5,960. It is followed by Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu with 2,910 and 610 new cases, respectively.

Daily fatalities in India are also registering a consistent decline. India has recorded less than 300 daily deaths for the last 23 days.

Six States & UTs have reported 66.30 per cent of the 181 case fatalities in the past 24 hours.

Maharashtra has reported 52 deaths. Kerala saw a fatality count of 27 while West Bengal reported 15 new deaths.

Meanwhile, India started its first phase of the nationwide COVID-19 vaccination drive on January 16 which was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Termed as the world's largest vaccination program, covering the entire length and breadth of the country, the drive aims to first vaccinate millions of its healthcare and frontline workers and reach an estimated 3 lakh people by the end of its first phase.

( With inputs from ANI )