India reports 41,157 new COVID-19 cases, 518 deaths in last 24 hours

New Delhi, July 18, 2021

India today reported 41,157 new cases of COVID-19 infection and 518 deaths in the last 24 hours as the spread of the coronavirus pandemic remained on a downward trajectory in most parts of the country though there was some concern about the high numbers of cases in Kerala and some other parts.

At 41,157, the number of new cases today is higher than the 38,079 recorded yesterday. Of these, as many as 16,148 cases were registered in Kerala.

However, the number of deaths today, at 518, is lower than the 560 posted yesterday.

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 21 days now and below 100,000 for the 41st 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 413,609.

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 31,106,065 today.

Of the 518 deaths posted in India in the last 24 hours, Maharashtra, the worst-hit state, accounted for 124, followed by 114 in Kerala, 67 in Odisha, 43 in Tamil Nadu, 42 in Karnataka, 23 in Assam, 18 in Andhra Pradesh and 15 in Manipur.

The other states reported less than 10 deaths each in the last 24 hours. There were four 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 30,269,796 today, up 42,004 from yesterday. The recovery rate rose to 97.31% from 97.30% yesterday.

This is the 66th consecutive day that the number of recoveries has exceeded the number of new cases.

The number of active cases fell by 1,365 to 422,660 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 vaccination campaign in the country has crossed the 40-crore milestone with a total of 40.49 crore doses of COVID-19 vaccine administered so far. This includes 51,01,567 doses given in the last 24 hours.

The Weekly Positivity Rate is currently at 2.08% while the Daily Positivity rate stood at 2.13%. It has remained less than 3% for 27 consecutive days now.

NNN