With 9,121 new cases, India reports 2nd lowest figure of year

New Delhi, Feb 16: Continuing its streak of low numbers of single-day coronavirus cases, India reported 9,121 new infections in the last 24 hours even as its overall tally mounted to 1,09,25,710, health officials said on Tuesday. For over a month, the country has recorded less than 15,000 new infections daily. Besides, the daily Covid-19 death toll has been treading below the 200-mark for more than a month now. On February 9, India had reported 9,110 new cases, the lowest this year so far. Last year, the lowest 9,633 cases were recorded on June 3. The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said that there were 81 more Covid-19 fatalities, taking the overall death toll to 1,55,813 As per the Ministry's data, there are 1,36,872 active cases at present after 11,805 patients were discharged in a day. Till now, 1,06,33,025 persons have been discharged so far. The recovery rate has increased to 97.32 per cent, while the fatality rate is down to 1.43 per cent. The ministry also informed that 6,15,664 samples were tested on Monday. The cumulative tests done by Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) so far stands at 20,73,32,298. Meanwhile, more than 8.5 million (87,20,822) doses of corona vaccine have been administered in India since the drive began on January 16 after approval for 'Covishield' and 'Covaxin'. As per the Union Health Ministry, India has become the fastest nation in terms of the vaccine doses administered in the country, even though many countries had launched their vaccination campaigns earlier. (IANS)