India's COVID-19 tally rises to 13,689,453

As many as 161,736 new COVID-19 cases were registered across India in the past 24 hours taking the total tally to 13,689,453, said the latest data released by the federal health ministry on Tuesday.

Besides, 879 deaths took place in the country, taking the death toll to 171,058. This is the eighth time within this month, and the seventh consecutive day, when more than 100,000 new COVID-19 cases were reported in India.

Earlier, 103,558 new cases were reported last Monday, followed by 115,736 new cases on Wednesday, 126,789 new cases on Thursday, 131,968 on Friday, 145,384 on Saturday, 152,879 on Sunday, and 168,912 new cases on Monday.

There are still 1,264,698 Active Cases in the country, while 12,253,697 people have been discharged so far from hospitals after medical treatment. There was an increase of 63,689 Active Cases during the previous 24 hours, the highest this year so far.

The number of daily Active Cases has been on the rise over the past few days, even as another wave of COVID-19 looms large in India. In January the number of daily cases in the country had come down to below-10,000. As many as 9102 new cases were reported between January 25-26, which was the lowest in the previous 237 days. Prior to that, the lowest number of daily new cases were 9304 registered on June 4, 2020.

January 16 was a crucial day in India's fight against the pandemic as the nationwide vaccination drive was kicked off during the day. So far over 108 million people (108,533,085) have been vaccinated across the country. Meanwhile, the federal government has ramped up COVID-19 testing facilities across the country, even as over 259 million tests have been conducted so far.

As many as 259,207,108 tests were conducted till Monday, out of which 1,400,122 tests were conducted on Monday alone, said the latest data issued by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) on Tuesday.

The national capital Delhi, which has been one of the most COVID-19 affected places in the country, witnessed over 11,491 new cases and 72 deaths through Monday. The single-day deaths in Delhi are said to be the highest in past four months. So far as many as 11,355 people have died in the national capital due to COVID-19, confirmed Delhi's health department.