New Delhi, Mar 22 (Agency) Exactly one year after the ‘Janta Curfew’ was imposed to arrest the pandemic novel coronavirus in early stages, India on Monday, yet again, showed an upward trajectory in the COVID-19 infections as a whopping 46,951 new cases were recorded during the past 24 hours. The fresh addition has taken the country caseload to 1,16,46,081, while the death toll mounted to 1,59,967 with 212 more fatalities.
Maharashtra reported the highest daily new cases at 30,535 followed by Punjab with 2,644 while Kerala reported 1,875 new cases. According to the Union Health Ministry, the active cases rose by 25,559 to stand at 3,34,646. It is now 2.66 per cent of the total caseload. Six states account for 85.85 per cent of the new deaths. Maharashtra saw the maximum 99 casualties followed by Punjab 44 and Kerala reported 13 deaths in the last 24 hours. Notably, 14 states and UTs have not reported any COVID19 deaths in the past one day. These are Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Uttarakhand, Lakshadweep, Sikkim, Ladakh (UT), D&D & D&N, Meghalaya, Manipur, Tripura, Nagaland, Mizoram, A&N Islands and Arunachal Pradesh.
The past 24 hours saw 21,180 people recovering from the deadly virus, taking the total recovery count to 1,11,51,468, which is 95.96 per cent of the case tally. The fatality rate stood at 1.38 per cent. Meanwhile, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) said that a total of 23,44,45,774 lakh samples have been tested so far for coronavirus. Out of this, 8,80,655 were tested in the past one day. On the vaccination front, a total of 4,50,65,998 vaccine doses have been administered till 0700 hrs today with 4,62,157 people receiving the jab on Sunday.