India on Tuesday registered 2,55,874 new Covid-19 cases, taking the overall tally in the country to 3,97,99,202. The number of new cases on Tuesday were 16.39% fewer than Monday’s figure of 3,06,064 infections.

The positivity rate declined significantly to 15.52% from 20.75% on Monday, showed data from the Union health ministry.

In the past 24 hours, 614 people died of Covid-19, taking the overall fatality count to 4,90,462.

The country’s active caseload stood at 22,36,842 on Tuesday morning – a decline of 12,493 infections in the past 24 hours. Active cases currently constitute 5.62% of the total number of positive cases in the country.

As many as 3,70,71,898 patients recovered from the disease since Monday. India’s recovery rate currently stands at 93.15%.

(Source: Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare)

Across the country, 62,29,956 coronavirus vaccines were administered in the past day, taking the total number of vaccines given to 1,62,92,09,308. Of these, 88,02,178 doses were precaution doses administered to healthcare workers, frontline workers and senior citizens.

Over 13.42 crore vaccine doses are currently available with states and union territories, the Union health ministry said on Tuesday.

India updates

Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya will hold a virtual meeting on Tuesday with the health ministers of nine states and union territories to discuss the coronavirus-related situation, ANI reported. The states and union territories are Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, Uttarakhand, Delhi, Ladakh, Uttar Pradesh and Chandigarh.

Meanwhile, a senior government expert said that coronavirus cases in Karnataka have spiked due to an increase in testing, NDTV reported. MK Sudarshan, the chairperson of Karnataka’s technical advisory committee, said that the state is not following the guidelines of the Indian Council of Medical Research, which state that only symptomatic persons should be tested.

The state registered 46,426 new Covid-19 cases and 32 deaths on Monday.