Coronavirus in India: more than 45,000 infected for third consecutive day

India registered 48,916 new coronavirus cases in the last 24 hours, as the total number of patients mounted to 13,36,861 today, showed health ministry data.

There were also 757 virus-related deaths yesterday, according to the data, taking the total number of fatalities to 31,358.

Today was the third consecutive day that Covid-19 cases increased by more than 45,000.

The recovery rate is 63.53 percent while the positivity rate is 11.62 percent nationally.

India's active Covid-19 caseload stood at 4,56,071 this morning while 8,49,431 people have recovered from the disease so far, according to the health ministry.

India's Covid-19 tally took 177 days to reach the 13-lakh mark and the number of cases doubled in nearly three weeks since July 2 when the country crossed the six lakh-mark.

"At 864 cases per million and less than 21 deaths per million of its population, India has one of the world's lowest infection and death rates," Health Minister Harsh Vardhan said on Friday while addressing a virtual function.

He also pointed that the recovery rate among coronavirus-infected patients in the country is 63.45 percent while the mortality rate is 2.3 percent.

There are nine states that have in the recent past shown a sharp rise in the daily number of active cases and are emerging as serious areas of concern for the government from a Covid-19 management point of view, health ministry officials said.

The nine states are West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Telangana, Odisha, Assam, Karnataka, Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh.

A high-level detailed review meeting was held here last evening on the situation in the nine states discussing the factors that were leading to the rising case-load there in recent times.

It was reiterated that sustained and aggressive testing is crucial for early identification of cases and to prevent spread of the infection.

Maharashtra -- the worst-hit state -- on Friday recorded 9,615 new cases, 1,057 of them in Mumbai city alone. The state's total case tally currently stands at 3,57,117 while the number of virus-related deaths at 13,132 with 278 new fatalities on Friday.

Meanwhile, the search for finding an indigenous Covid-19 vaccine gathered momentum on Friday with the start of human trials in six different cities including Delhi.

The trials are being conducted with two anti-Covid-19 vaccines manufactured by Bharat Biotech and Zydus Cadila.