COVID-19: India records 16,738 new cases, 138 fresh fatalities

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New Delhi: The daily rise in coronavirus infections in India was recorded above 15,000 after nearly a month taking the country’s total tally of COVID-19 cases to 1,10,46,914, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on February 25.

A total of 16,738 infections were reported in a day, while the death toll increased to 1,56,705 with 138 daily new fatalities, the data updated at 8 am showed.  On January 29, 18,855 new infections were recorded in a span of 24 hours after which the daily rise of cases stayed below 15,000.  The daily deaths were registered above 130 after a gap of 26 days.

The number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 1,07,38,501 which translates to a national COVID-19 recovery rate of  97.21 per cent and the case fatality rate stands at 1.42%.

The active caseload increased to 1,51,708 which  comprises 1.37% of the total infections, the data stated.

India’s COVID-19 tally had crossed the 20-lakh mark on August 7, 30 lakh on August 23, 40 lakh on September 5 and 50 lakh on September 16.It went past  60 lakh on September 28,  70 lakh on  October 11, crossed 80 lakh on October 29, 90 lakh on November 20 and surpassed the one-crore mark on December 19.

According to the ICMR, 21,38,29,658  samples have been tested up to February 24 with 7,93,383 samples being tested on February 24.

The 138 new fatalities include 80 from Maharashtra, 17 from Kerala, 7 from Punjab and 6 each from Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.

A total of 1,56,705 deaths have been reported so far in the country including 51,937 from Maharashtra followed by 12,478 from Tamil Nadu, 12,309 from Karnataka, 10,905 from Delhi, 10,256 from West Bengal, 8,721 from Uttar Pradesh and 7,168 from Andhra Pradesh.

The health ministry stressed that more than 70 per cent of the deaths occurred due to comorbidities.

“Our figures are being reconciled with the Indian Council of  Medical Research,” the ministry said on its website, adding that state-wise distribution of figures is subject to further verification and reconciliation.