India logs 306,064 new COVID-19 cases

India on Monday reported a decline in the daily COVID-19 infections as the country logged 306,064 new COVID-19 cases with a positivity rate of over 20 percent, said the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

As per government data, new infections were 27,469 less than that reported on Sunday. However, the daily positivity rate rose to 20.75 percent from 17.78 percent yesterday.

Notably, 1,474,753 tests were conducted in the last 24 hours while 1,875,533 tests were conducted on Sunday.

The ministry has said that India's active caseload currently stands at 2,249,335. It accounts for 5.69 percent of the total cases.

The government data shows that 439 people succumbed to the virus in the last 24 hours. The death toll is now at 489,848. The case fatality rate is 1.24 percent.

With 243,495 people recovering from the infection in the last 24 hours, the cumulative recoveries mounted to 36,804,145.

The weekly positivity rate is presently at 17.03 percent.

As per government data, Karnataka has the highest number of active cases with 357,826 infections, followed by 297,115 active cases in Maharashtra and 265,349 in Kerala.

Meanwhile, in the ongoing COVID-19 vaccination drive, 1.62 billion vaccine doses have been administered so far.

With the administration of more than 2.7 million vaccine doses in the last 24 hours, India's COVID-19 vaccination coverage has reached 1,622,607,516 as per provisional reports till 7 am today, the ministry said.

So far 8,180,165 precaution doses have been administered to eligible beneficiaries. Of these, 2,740,418 were given to healthcare workers, 2,687,668 to frontline workers, and 2,752,079 to those above the age of 60 years with comorbidities. The administration of the precaution dose began on January 10.

In the vaccination drive for children aged between 15-18 years, 41,932,411 vaccine doses have been administered. Their vaccination drive commenced on January 3 this year.

India's nationwide vaccination drive was started on January 16, 2021.