India's COVID active caseload drops below 4.85 L; daily new recoveries outnumber fresh cases

India's active COVID-19 cases remained below five lakh for the third consecutive day at 4,84,547, which comprise 5.55 per cent of the total caseload, the Union Health Ministry said on Friday.

This has been made possible by the trend of COVID-19 recoveries exceeding new cases, which has ensured a total net reduction of the active caseload, it underlined.

In contrast to 44,879 new infections reported in a span of 24 hours, 49,079 cases have recovered in the last 24 hours, which continues India's trend of having daily high recoveries that outnumber the daily new cases. 

This trend has been observed for the 41st day today, the ministry highlighted.

The total recovered cases have surged to 81,15,580, which translates to a national recovery rate of 92.97 per cent.  "The gap between recovered cases and active cases continues to grow and presently stands at 76,31,033," the ministry said. 

It said that 77.83 per cent of the new recovered cases are observed to be concentrated in 10 states and union territories.

Maharashtra reported the maximum number of single-day recoveries. A total of 7,809 new recoveries have pushed the state's total recoveries to 16,05,064.

About 76.25 per cent of the new coronavirus infections are concentrated in 10 states and union territories, the ministry said.

Delhi reported the maximum daily new cases numbering 7,053 in the last 24 hours. Kerala recorded 5,537 new cases while Maharashtra reported 4,496 new cases in a span of 24 hours, it said.

Ten states and union territories account for about 80 per cent (79.34 per cent) of the 547 case fatalities reported in a span of 24 hours with 22.3 per cent of them being reported from Maharashtra which reported 122 deaths.

Delhi and West Bengal follow with 104 and 54 new deaths, respectively.