India on Tuesday registered 86,498 new coronavirus cases. This is the lowest daily tally of infections in 66 days. This is the first time since April 6 that India’s daily Covid-19 tally dropped to less than 1 lakh.

The country’s infection tally rose to 2,89,96,473 since the pandemic broke out in January 2020. With 2,123 deaths, the toll climbed to 3,51,309.

Active cases dropped by 97,907 in the last 24 hours, taking the cumulative total to 13.03 lakh. Recoveries continue to outnumber the daily new cases for the 26th consecutive day. The recovery rate stood at 94.29% while the case positivity rate is 4.62%. India has been reporting positivity rates below 10% for 15 consecutive days now.

Maharashtra continues to be the worst Covid-hit state. It is followed by Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh. Several states have begun resuming activities after easing lockdown restrictions.

Source: Ministry of Health and Family Welfare

On Monday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a change in the Covid-19 vaccination policy, amid complaints of shortages of doses from several states. The prime minister said that the Centre will now take over vaccine procurement from states and the inoculation policy will come into effect in two weeks.

Modi’s announcement came a week after the Supreme Court criticised the Centre’s vaccine policy and called it “irrational, arbitrary”. The Centre’s decision on Monday is in line with the demands made by multiple chief ministers to provide vaccines for free to states.

So far, India has administered 23.61 crore vaccine doses.

Globally, the coronavirus disease has infected over 17.35 crore people and killed more than 37.34 lakh since the pandemic broke out in December 2019, according to Johns Hopkins University.

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