India records 1,422 COVID-19 deaths, new cases drop to 53,256 in last 24 hours

New Delhi, June 21, 2021

India today recorded 1,422 deaths due to COVID-19 and 53,256 fresh cases of infection in the last 24 hours as the spread of the coronavirus pandemic continued to decelerate around the country.

The country had reported 1,576 deaths and 58,419 new cases yesterday.

The number of new cases today is the lowest since March 24, when the number was 47,262.

At 1,422, the number of deaths in a single day today is the lowest since April 18, when 1,501 deaths were reported.

The number of deaths in a single day has remained below 3,000 for the seventh consecutive day today after staying above that level for the previous five days. The number had fallen below 3,000 on June 1 for the first time after April 28. It has remained below 2,000 for four days now.

The country had registered more than 4,000 deaths in a single day on 13 days in May.

The number of new cases of infection in the country in the last 24 hours has remained below 100,000 for the 14th consecutive 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 388,135. The total number of cases of infection till now, since the first cases of COVID-19 were reported in India in late January 2020, has gone up to 29,935,221.

Of the 1,422 deaths reported in India in the last 24 hours, Maharashtra, the worst-hit state, accounted for 605, followed by 182 deaths in Tamil Nadu, 120 in Karnataka, 112 in Kerala, 53 in West Bengal, 50 in Andhra Pradesh, 46 in Uttar Pradesh, 40 in Odisha and 30 each in Assam, Haryana and Madhya Pradesh.

The other states reported less than 30 deaths each in the last 24 hours. There were seven COVID-19 deaths in national capital Delhi during this period.

The number of those who have recovered from COVID-19 in the country rose to 28,844,199 today, up 78,190 from yesterday. The recovery rate has improved to 96.35% from 96.26% yesterday.

This is the 39th consecutive day that the number of recoveries has exceeded the number of new cases.

The number of active cases dipped by 26,356 to 702,887 -- the lowest since April 4 when it was 691,597.

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 weekly positivity rate is currently at 3.32% and the daily positivity rate stood at 3.83% today. It has remained below 5% for 14 consecutive days now.

A total of 28 crorevaccine doses have been administered so far in the country.

NNN