NEW DELHI, June 12: India’s caseload of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) climbed to 29,359,155 on Saturday after 84,332 new infections were logged in the last 24 hours, according to the Union ministry of health and family welfare. This is the first time in more than two months that the daily cases went below the 90,000-mark. On Friday, 91,702 Covid-19 cases were recorded across the country.
As many as 4,002 people succumbed to the viral disease and 121,311 recovered on Saturday, taking the death toll and recoveries to 367,081 and 27,911,384 respectively. The active cases have come down to 1,080,690 and constitute 3.83 per cent of the caseload.
More than 1.9 million samples were tested for Covid-19 in the last 24 hours, taking the cumulative figures to 376,232,162, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) said on Saturday.
As the overall Covid-19 graph in India has been on the decline since last month, indicating the country might be able to gain control over the ongoing second wave of the pandemic, the health ministry on Friday urged citizens to continue following Covid-appropriate behaviour.
“We have to incorporate Covid-appropriate behaviour in our lives. Even though cases are coming down, we have to ensure that the infection does not spread,” the health ministry’s joint secretary Lav Agarwal said while addressing a routine Covid-19 briefing.
He added there has been a decline of almost 78 per cent in daily infections and a 74 per cent decrease in weekly positivity rate.
(Manas Dasgupta)