India sees new 18,346 Covid-19 cases, 263 deaths

There are 2,52,902 active infections in the country at present

Daily cases of coronavirus in the country remained below 30,000 for the 11th straight day with 18,346 fresh infections recorded in a single day, while the active cases declined to 2,52,902, the lowest in 209 days, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Tuesday.

With the fresh cases, India's total tally of Covid-19 cases rose to 3,38,53,048, while the death toll climbed to 4,49,260 with 263 fresh fatalities, according to the data.

The country's recovery rate currently stands at 97.93%.

The active cases comprise 0.75 per cent of the total infections, the lowest since March 2020, while the national Covid-19 recovery rate was recorded at 97.93 per cent, the highest since March 2020, the ministry said.

A decrease of 11,556 cases has been recorded in the active Covid-19 caseload in a span of 24 hours.

India's Covid-19 tally had crossed the 20-lakh mark on August 7, 2020, 30 lakh on August 23, 40 lakh on September 5 and 50 lakh on September 16. It went past 60 lakh on September 28, 70 lakh on October 11, crossed 80 lakh on October 29, 90 lakh on November 20 and surpassed the one-crore mark on December 19.

India crossed the grim milestone of two crore on May 4 and three crore on June 23.

The total number of samples tested until October 4 has touched 57,53,94,042, including 11,41,642 samples tested on Monday, according to ICMR data.

(With PTI inputs)