India records 8,813 new COVID-19 cases, lowest in 63 days

India recorded 8,813 new cases of the novel coronavirus in the past 24 hours, nearly half of what was recorded yesterday. According to the data shared by the Union Health Ministry on Tuesday (August 16), the total recovery rate reached around 98.56 per cent and total recoveries data reached to 4,36,38,844. Also, India recorded 29 deaths due to the coronavirus infection in the past 24 hours.

Active cases:

The total active cases of COVID-19 in India have significantly decreased to 1,11,252, the health ministry data showed today.  A decrease of 6,256 cases has been recorded in the active COVID-19 caseload in a span of 24 hours. The active cases comprise 0.25 per cent of the total infections, the ministry said.  The total death toll in the country is now at 5,27,098. In India, the first death due to the COVID pandemic was reported in March 2020.

ICMR Testing

According to the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), 88,04,80,374 samples have been tested up to August 14 for COVID-19. Of these 1,98,271 samples were tested on Sunday.

Delhi COVID tally:

Delhi reported 1,227 fresh cases of Covid-19 on Monday and eight deaths, according to data provided by the health department. The new cases come as a 43 per cent drop from the day before when the national capital had recorded 2,162 infections. The positivity rate in the city was recorded at 14.57 per cent, data showed.

Before this, the city logged more than 2,000 cases daily for 12 consecutive days.  On Saturday, it logged nine deaths due to COVID-19 and 2,031 cases with a positivity rate of 12.34 per cent.