India reports 44,879 new cases of COVID-19
New Delhi, Nov 13 (UNI) India on Friday recorded 44,879 fresh COVID-19 cases, pushing the country’s overall caseload to 87.28 lakh while the death toll soared to 1,28,668 with 547 fresh fatalities.
For nearly a month the COVID-19 cases have been witnessing a downward trend, and this is the sixth consecutive day when new cases reported in the last 24 hours did not cross the 50,000 mark. Cases recorded in the past 24 hours are 6 per cent lower than Thursday.
According to the Union Health Ministry, the active cases saw a drop of 4,747 and currently stood at 4,84,547. It is 5.63 per cent of the total caseload.
On a positive note, the frontline medics were able to save 49,079 more lives, taking the total recovery count to 81,15,580, which is 92.89 per cent of the caseload. The fatality rate stood at 1.48 per cent.
Maharashtra accounted for 122 of the day’s fatalities followed by 104 were reported from Delhi, 54 from West Bengal, 25 each from Kerala and Tamil Nadu, 23 from Punjab, 21 each from Uttar Pradesh and Karnataka, 20 from Chhattisgarh and 19 from Haryana.
As per the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), 11,39,230 samples were tested on Friday, taking to 12,31,01,739 the total. The Health Ministry said that comprehensive & high testing is pivotal in the strategy to curb the chain of transmission. “From few tests in Jan, India has scaled a high of more than 12 crore total tests in November”, it tweeted.
The World Health Organization (WHO) declared the COVID-19 outbreak a pandemic on March 11. To date, more than 53.9 million people have been infected with the coronavirus worldwide, with over 1.29 million fatalities.
The Union Health Ministry has maintained that despite the decline in new cases, the policies of prevention, testing, tracking, treating and containment will continue. The health ministry has warned people to avoid congregations within families during the festival period and advocated use of masks.