India's COVID-19 active cases fall below 1.7 lakh, recovery rate at 96.98 pc

India's total active caseload has dropped to less than 1.7 lakh (1,69,824) on Saturday, according to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW).

The Ministry said that the present active caseload now consists of less than 1.6 per cent, which is just 1.58 per cent of India's total positive cases.

"The nine States and UTs have a higher weekly positivity rate than the national average. Kerala records highest weekly positivity rate with 12.20 per cent, followed by Chhattisgarh with 7.30 per cent," it said.

Moreover, 27 States and UTs have a weekly positivity rate less than the national average.

"With a consistent rise in cumulative recoveries, India's recovery rate has reached nearly 97 per cent (96.98 per cent)," said the Ministry, while adding that it is one of the highest globally.

Total cumulative recoveries stand at 1,04,09,160 today with 14,808 patients recovered and discharged in the last 24 hours.

The Ministry said that India has also significantly scaled up its COVID-19 inoculation drive and over 5.7 lakh people have been vaccinated successively for the last 2 days.

"As on January 30, 2021, till 8:00 am, more than 35 lakh (35,00,027) beneficiaries have received the vaccination under the countrywide COVID19 vaccination exercise," it said.

According to the MoHFW, in the last 24 hours, 5,71,974 people were vaccinated across 10,809 sessions. 63,687 sessions have been conducted so far.

Moreover, 85.10 per cent of the new recovered cases are observed to be concentrated in 10 States and UTs.

Kerala has reported the maximum number of single-day recoveries with 6,398 newly recovered cases. 2,613 people recovered in Maharashtra in the past 24 hours followed by 607 in Karnataka.

13,083 daily new cases registered in the last 24 hours and 81.95 per cent of these cases are from 6 States and UTs.

"Kerala continues to report the highest daily new cases at 6,268. It is followed by Maharashtra with 2,771, while Tamil Nadu reported 509 new cases", it added.

As many as 137 deaths recorded in the last 24 hours and seven States and UTs account for 83.94 per cent of the new deaths. Maharashtra saw the maximum casualties at 56, followed by Kerala with 22 daily deaths and Punjab with 11.

( With inputs from ANI )