Active Covid cases lowest in more than 7 months

New Delhi, October 18

India added 13,596 new coronavirus infections taking the total tally of Covid cases to 3,40,81,315, while the active cases declined to 1,89,694, the lowest in 221 days, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Monday.

The death toll climbed to 4,52,290 with 166 fresh fatalities, according to the data updated at 8 am.

The daily rise in new coronavirus infections has been below 30,000 for 24 straight days and less than 50,000 daily new cases have been reported for 113 consecutive days now.

The active cases comprise 0.56  per cent of the total infections, the lowest since March 2020, while the national Covid recovery rate was recorded at 98.12 per cent, the highest since March 2020, the ministry said.

A decrease of 6,152 cases has been recorded in the active Covid caseload in a span of 24 hours.

The 166 new fatalities include 74 from Kerala and 29 from Maharashtra.

A total of 4,52,290 deaths have been reported so far in the country, including 1,39,789 from Maharashtra, 37,941 from Karnataka, 35,899 from Tamil Nadu, 26,865 from Kerala, 25,089 from Delhi, 22,898 from Uttar Pradesh and 18,977 from West Bengal.  PTI