New Delhi (TIP): India recorded 43,509 new cases of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) in the last 24 hours, which pushed the nationwide tally to 31,528,114 while the death toll climbed to 4,22,662 with 640 daily fatalities, according to Union health ministry update on Thursday, July 28.

The active cases declined to 4,03,840 in the said time period, according to data released by the ministry at 8am on July 28. The national Covid-19 recovery rate improved to 1.27 per cent, it stated. The number of active cases increased by 4404.

As many as 17,28,795 Covid-19 tests were conducted on Tuesday, taking the total number of tests conducted so far to 46,26,29,773.

The number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 3,07,01,612, while the case fatality rate stands at 1.34 per cent, it said.

The total number of vaccine doses administered so far has reached 44.19 crore under the nationwide vaccination drive.

More than 2.18 crore Covid-19 vaccine doses are still available with states, Union Territories and private hospitals for inoculation, the Union health ministry said on Wednesday. “More than 2.18 Crore (2,18,10,422) balance and unutilized Covid Vaccine doses are still available with the States/UTs and private hospitals to be administered,” said the Ministry of health and family welfare.

The Covid-19 vaccination drive has been ramped up through availability of more vaccines, advance visibility of vaccine availability to states and Union Territories for enabling better planning by them and streamlining the vaccine supply chain. The new phase of universalisation of vaccination commenced from June 21.

Meanwhile, Maharashtra’s weekly positivity rate has dropped to 3.8% from last week’s 4.36%, indicating a downward trend of the second Covid-19 wave.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the positivity rate should remain below 5% for an outbreak to be considered under control. Positivity rate is the percentage of tests of a particular infection returning positive.

The state currently has 10 districts with positivity rates above the state average of 3.8%. These are Satara (8.03%), Pune (7.23%), Kolhapur (7.18%), Sangli (6.91%), Sindhudurg (6.49 %), Solapur (5.90%), Ahmednagar (4.95%), Beed (4.88%), Raigad (4.70%), and Ratnagiri (3.83%). This means currently just six out of the 10 districts have a positivity rate of more than 5%. Last week, nine of the 10 districts had a positivity rate of more than 5%.

Source: HT