India logs 172,433 new Covid-19 cases, daily tally 6.84% higher than Wednesday

India's daily Covid-19 tally saw a marginal jump on Thursday as the country recorded 1,72,433 cases of infection in the last 24 hours, according to data released by Union health ministry. It was 6.84% higher than Wednesday when the country had logged 161,386 infections. The country also logged 1,008 deaths in the last 24 hours, according to the health ministry's bulletin.

The overall death toll now stands at 498,983, and the nationwide tally jumped to 41,803,318, according to the ministry data. The steep rise in the daily death toll was result of Kerala adding a backlog of deaths.

On Wednesday, the southern state reported 500 deaths, according to the state government release. Of the deaths, 29 were reported in the last 24 hours, 136 were those which occurred in the last few days but were not recorded due to late receipt of documents and 335 were designated as Covid-19 deaths after receiving appeals based on the new guidelines of the Centre and the directions of the Supreme Court, PTI reported citing official release.

The number of active cases is at 15,33,921 and accounts for 3.67 per cent of the total cases. The daily positivity rate is 10.99 per cent, the data also showed.

As many as 2,59,107 people recuperated from the viral disease, with this the total number of recoveries is at 3,97,70,414. The recovery rate is currently at 95.14 per cent, the health ministry also said. The weekly positivity rate is at 12.98 per cent.

The cumulative number of doses administered in the country so far under the nationwide vaccination drive against Covid-19 has crossed 167.87 crore.