New Delhi, Mar 24 (FN Bureau) India reported 47,262 new cases of COVID-19 during the past 24 hours, pushing the country caseload to 1,17,34,058, while the death toll mounted to 1,60,441 with 275 more fatalities, the Health Ministry said Wednesday. According to the Ministry, the active cases rose by 23,080 to stand at 3,68,457. It is now 3.14 per cent of the total caseload. Five States of Maharashtra, Punjab, Karnataka, Chhattisgarh and Gujarat are reporting a surge in the COVID daily new cases. These states account for 77.44 per cent of the new cases.
The past 24 hours saw 23,907 people recovering from the deadly virus, taking the total recovery count to 1,12,05,160, which is 95.49 per cent of the case tally. The fatality rate stood at 1.37 per cent. Six states account for 83.27 per cent of the new deaths. Maharashtra saw the maximum casualties (132). Punjab follows with 53 daily deaths and Chhattisgarh reported 20 deaths in the last 24 hours. Interestingly, even though the cases are rising pan-India, 12 states — Odisha, Lakshadweep, Ladakh (UT), Manipur, D&N & D&N, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Sikkim, Tripura, A&N Islands, Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh — have not reported any COVID-19 deaths in the past one day.
Meanwhile, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) said that a total of 23,64,38,861 lakh samples have been tested so far for coronavirus. Out of this, 10,25,628 were tested in the past one day. On the vaccination front, as many as 5,08,41,286 vaccine doses have been administered so far. More than 23 lakh vaccine doses were given on Tuesday.