India adds 58,077 new Covid cases, lowest single-day surge since Jan 5

India on Friday saw a significant fall in its daily tally of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) after 58,077 infections were recorded in the last 24 hours, which pushed the caseload to 42,536,137, according to the Union health ministry's update at 8 am. The fresh deaths also declined with 657 patients succumbing to the viral disease and the toll has now gone up to 507,177.

The total number of discharges in the country now stands at 41,331,158 after 150,407 patients recuperated in the last 24 hours. The overall recovery rate is nearing 97%. The active cases continued a downward trend and stood at 697,802, the health ministry's update also said.

Friday's case count has been the lowest since January 5, when 58,097 infections were recorded. Meanwhile, on Thursday, 67,084 cases, 1,241 deaths and 167,882 were seen.

The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) said on Friday that 1,511,321 samples were tested for Covid-19 in the last 24 hours and the total testing figure is more than 740 million.

According to the health ministry, more than 4.8 million doses were administered to eligible beneficiaries in the last 24 hours. The cumulative vaccination count is nearing 1.72 billion.

The health ministry said on Thursday that the pandemic situation in India is optimistic and improving, adding the number of infections seems to be settling. However, it warned that some states including Kerala and Mizoram still have a high Covid-19 positivity rate.

Addressing the ministry's routine briefing on the Covid-19 situation, NITI Aayog member (Health) Dr V K Paul on Thursday urged people to not lower their guard and that Covid appropriate behaviour has to be taken as the new normal.

Dr Paul added that the daily positivity rate in Kerala is over 29% which is enormously high while Mizoram has 26.5%. "Himachal has 11.79% positivity, 12% in Arunachal Pradesh and 17% in Sikkim, so these are points of concern," Paul added.