India on Saturday reported 11,713 new coronavirus cases, taking the total count to 1,08,14,304, the health ministry data showed. The toll rose by 95 to 1,54,918, the second time this week when the deaths recorded in 24 hours remained below 100.

The country has the highest number of coronavirus cases in the world after the United States, but the infection rate has slowed significantly since September.

As many as 1,05,10,796 people have recovered from the infection so far, pushing the recovery rate to 97.19%, according to The Indian Express. The active cases declined further to 1,48,590. The case fatality rate stood at 1.43%.

About 83.3% of the new cases are observed to be concentrated in six states and Union Territories of Maharashtra, Kerala, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Chhattisgarh and Karnataka.

India, which started its vaccination programme on January 16, has inoculated 54,16,849 people against the coronavirus so far. The second dose of the vaccine will be administered to healthcare workers from February 13.

In 24 hours, 4,57,404 people were vaccinated across 10,502 sessions.

Of the total beneficiaries, the highest number of people were vaccinated in Uttar Pradesh at 6,73,542, followed by Maharashtra at 4,34,943, Rajasthan at 4,14,422 and Karnataka at 3,60,592. The health ministry said India is the fastest country to reach the 50 lakh-mark in Covid-19 vaccination in 21 days.

A total of 20,06,72,589 samples have tested for the infection up to Saturday, the Indian Council of Medical Research said. Of these, 7,40,794 were tested on Friday.

Globally, the coronavirus has infected more than 10.5 crore people and killed over 22.99 lakh, according to John Hopkins University. Over 5.85 crore people have recovered from the infection in the world.