India reports 96,982 new Covid cases, 446 deaths

New Delhi: India recorded 96,982 new coronavirus cases in the last 24 hours, taking the total tally to 1,26,86,049 on Tuesday. This comes a day after daily cases crossed one-lakh mark.

On Monday, the country recorded 1,03,558 new coronavirus cases, the highest single-day tally since the coronavirus outbreak.

Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh and Punjab have shown a steep rise in the daily new cases.

The Central Government has rushed 50 high-level multi-disciplinary public health teams to 50 districts across Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh and Punjab in view of the recent very large numbers of daily new Covid-19 cases and daily mortality being consistently reported by these States.

The active cases have now increased to 7,88,223 comprising 6.21 per cent of the total infections, while the recovery rate has further dropped to 92.48 per cent.

The death toll increased to 1,65,547 with 446 daily new fatalities. The number of people who have recovered from the disease surged to 1,17,32,279, while the case fatality rate stood at 1.30 per cent, the data stated.

A total of 25,02,31,269 samples tested for Covid up to April 5. Of these, 12,11,612 samples were tested on Monday, said the Indian Council of Medical Research.

The Centre has advised high-burden states and union territories to take stringent measures for containment of the surge.

So far, 8.31 crore doses of corona vaccine have been administered in the country since the drive began on January 16 after approval for 'Covishield' and 'Covaxin'.