In the past few weeks, there has been a slowdown in the rate of decline of average daily Covid cases, which is a cause of concern, the Union health ministry said on Tuesday.

It also said that there are 54 districts in 12 states and Union Territories, which reported over 10 per cent Covid positivity rate for the week ending July 26.

"The average daily new cases declined from 3,87,029 cases between May 5-11 to 38,090 cases between July 21- 27. In the past few weeks, there has been a slowdown/reduction in the rate of decline, which remains an area of concern," joint secretary in the health ministry, Lav Agarwal, said.

Twenty-two districts in seven states have reported an increasing trend in daily Covid cases for the last four weeks and this is also a cause of concern, the ministry said.

There are also eight districts, which were witnessing a decline in positivity rate, but are now seeing a rise in Covid cases, it said, adding that "we cannot take the situation for granted".

A study by the Armed Forces Medical College looked at 15 lakh doctors and frontline workers and found that Covishield gives 93 per cent protection while there was 98 per cent mortality reduction, the government said

India recorded less than 30,000 fresh Covid-19 cases after 132 days while its active caseload fell below 4,00,000 after 124 days on Tuesday, according to health ministry data.

The data updated at 8 am also showed that as many as 29,689 new coronavirus infections took the country's tally of COVID-19 cases to 3,14,40,951 while 415 fresh fatalities pushed the death toll to 4,21,382.

The number of active cases dropped to 3,98,100 and comprises 1.27 per cent of the total infections. The national Covid-19 recovery rate improved to 97.39 per cent, it stated.

The number of active cases fell by 13,089 in a span of 24 hours, it said.

The daily positivity rate declined to 1.73 per cent. The weekly positivity rate was recorded at 2.33 per cent, the ministry data stated.