India reports 7,974 new Covid cases, 343 deaths

New Delhi, Dec 16: In the past 24 hours, India registered 7,974 new Covid-19 cases and 343 deaths, the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said on Thursday.

With the new fatalities, the nationwide death toll has increased to 4,76,478.

The recovery of 7,948 patients in the last 24 hours has increased the cumulative tally to 3,41,54,879. Consequently, India's recovery rate stands at 98.38 per cent, the highest since March 2020.

India's active caseload presently stands at 87,245. Active cases constitute 0.25 per cent of the country's total positive cases, which is lowest since March 2020.

Also in the same period, a total of 12,16,011 tests were conducted across the country, taking the total to 66.02 crore .

Meanwhile, the weekly positivity rate at 0.64 per cent has remained less than 1 per cent for the last 32 days now.

The daily positivity rate at 0.57 per cent has also remained below 2 per cent for last 73 days and less than 3 per cent for 108 consecutive days now.

With the administration of 60,12,425 vaccine doses in the last 24 hours, India's Covid inoculation coverage has reached 135.25 crore as of Thursday morning.

This has been achieved through 1,41,93,269 sessions.

According to the Ministry, more than 16.42 crore balance and unutilised Covid vaccine doses are currently available with the states and UTs.