Daily cases of Covid-19 in the country climbed to about 14,000 after nearly 22 days, taking India's tally to 1,09,77,387, while the recoveries surged to 1,06,78,048, according to Union Health Ministry data updated on Saturday.
A total of 13,993 new cases were registered in a span of 24 hours. The death toll increased to 101 daily new fatalities, the data updated at 8 am showed.
On January 29, 18,855 daily cases were recorded.
The number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 1,06,78,048 which translates to a national recovery rate of 97.27 per cent and the case fatality rate stands at 1.42 per cent.
The Covid-19 active caseload remained below 1.5 lakh.
There are 1,43,127 active cases of coronavirus infections in the country which comprises 1.27 per cent of the total caseload, the data stated.
India's Covid-19 tally had crossed the 20-lakh mark on August 7, 30 lakh on August 23, 40 lakh on September 5 and 50 lakh on September 16. It went past 60 lakh on September 28, 70 lakh on October 11, crossed 80 lakh on October 29, 90 lakh on November 20 and surpassed the one-crore mark on December 19.
According to the ICMR, 21,02,61,480 samples have been tested up to February 19, with 7,86,618 samples being tested on Friday.
According to health experts, the key factors for the recent surge can be due to the re-opening of educational institutes in Kerala and resumption of suburban train services in Mumbai.
Mumbai, after a gap of 11 months, resumed full suburban train services on February 1, which carried a daily average of 8 million people before the pandemic.
The city has begun hiring marshals to enforce mask wearing. City authorities said out of nearly 5,000 marshals around 300 would be deployed on the rail network.
The heath ministry tweeted: “Coronavirus ... has not yet left the country… We still need to follow Covid-appropriate behaviour. No carelessness till there is a cure.”
As reported by Reuters, despite the recent rise in infections, India’s daily tally of new cases remains well below a mid-September peak of nearly 100,000. Testing numbers have also fallen to about 800,000 a day from more than 1 million. Since starting its vaccine campaign in mid-January, India has administered nearly 10 million doses, aiming to cover 300 million people by August.
