India reports below 20K new Covid cases for 2nd straight day

New Delhi, Sep 28: The daily Covid tally in India remained below 20,000-mark for the second consecutive day with 18,795 new cases registered in the last 24 hours, the Union Health Ministry's data released on Tuesday morning stated.

The country registered 19,859 cases on Monday, which was the first time after over 200 days when Covid cases were reported below the 20,000-mark.

India has been reporting daily cases between 30,000 to 35,000 daily for the last few weeks, however, with improvement in Covid situation in Kerala which has been reporting around 15,000 cases daily, the number of Covid cases have come down.

Karala registered 11,699 new Covid cases on Monday.

The country's active caseload further dropped to 2,92,206, according to the Union Health Ministry's data.

With 179 deaths reported in the last 24 hours, India's total Covid fatalities rose to 4,47,373.

So far, 3,36,97,581 people have been infected in the country, of which 32,9,58,002 have recovered, according to the ministry's report.

A steady slowdown in the rest of the country has brought the number of active Covid-19 cases below the 3-lakh mark for the first time in six months.

Only five states -- Kerala, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, and Mizoram -- are currently reporting more than 1,000 cases every day. In three states -- Bihar, Rajasthan and Jharkhand, and union territories -- Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu, and also Chandigarh -- the active case count has fallen below 100.