India logs 417 COVID-19 deaths, 32,937 new cases of infection in last 24 hours

New Delhi, August 16, 2021

India today logged 417 more deaths due to COVID-19 and 32,937 fresh cases of infection in the last 24 hours as most parts of the country continued to report a downtrend in the spread of the coronavirus pandemic.

Today's numbers are significantly lower than the 493 deaths and 36,083 new cases registered yesterday.

Apart from Maharashtra, the worst-hit state, the continuing high numbers of new cases and deaths in Kerala, however, remained a cause of concern for the state and central authorities.

At 18,582, Kerala accounted for more than half of the new cases in India in the last 24 hours and for 102 of the 417 deaths. The stae had recorded 19,451 cases and 105 deaths yesterday.

Overall, the number of deaths in 24 hours in the country stayed below 500 for the third consecutive day today. It had risen above that mark last Friday after remaining below that level for five consecutive days.

The country had reported more than 4,000 deaths a day on 13 days in May at the peak of the second wave of the pandemic.

The number of new cases has stayed below the 50,000-mark for 49 consecutive days now and below 100,000 for the 69th consecutive day today. It has remained below 40,000 for the third successive day today.

The highest number of new cases in a 24-hour period -- 414,188 -- was reported on May 7.

With the latest data released by the Ministry of Health of Family Welfare (MoHFW) this morning, the death toll so far has climbed to 431,642 today.

The total number of cases of infection till now, since the first cases of COVID-19 were reported in India in late January 2020, rose to 32,225,513 today.

Of the 417 COVID-19 deaths registered in India in the last 24 hours, Maharashtra accounted for 130, followed by 102 deaths in Kerala, 64 in Odisha, 23 in Tamil Nadu, 21 in Karnataka, 16 in Andhra Pradesh, 12 in West Bengal and 10 each in Assam and Manipur.

The other states reported less than 10 deaths each in the last 24 hours.

National capital Delhi reported no COVID-19 deaths during this period.

The number of those who have recovered from COVID-19 in the country rose to 31,411,924 today, up 35,909 from yesterday. The recovery rate stood at 97.47%.

The number of active cases fell for the second consecutive day, coming down by 3,389 to 381,947 today.

The number of active cases had touched 3,745,237 on May 10, the highest since the pandemic began in India. The active caseload had been continuously rising after February 12 this year, when it had touched its lowest mark of 135,926 in recent months. However, since May 11, there has been a steady downtrend.

The Health Ministry said the total number of COVID-19 vaccine doses administered in the country so far has risen to 54.58 crore, including 17,43,114 doses administered in the last 24 hours.

The Weekly Positivity Rate is currently at 2.01% while the Daily Positivity rate was 2.79% today, staying below 3% for the 21st consecutive day.

NNN