India reports 2,539 fresh COVID-19 cases and 60 deaths in last 24 hours

New Delhi, March 17 (IANS) India reported 2,539 fresh Covid-19 infectons in the past 24 hours, a marginal drop from previous day's 2,876, the Union Health Ministry said on Thursday.

In the same period, 60 fatalities were also registered taking the toll to 5,16,132.

Meanwhile, following a continuous downward trend, the active caseload has further declined to 30,799, constituting 0.07 per cent of the country's total positive cases.

A total of 4,491 patients have recovered in the last 24 hours and the cumulative tally of recovered patients since the beginning of the pandemic is now at 4,24,54,546. Consequently, India's recovery rate stands at 98.73 per cent.

Also in the same period, a total of 7,17, 330 tests were conducted across the country. India has so far conducted over 78.12 crore cumulative tests.

There has been a sustained fall in the weekly and daily positivity rates too. Weekly positivity rate in the country currently stands at 0.42 per cent and the daily positivity rate is reported to be 0.35 per cent.

On the vaccination front, India's Covid vaccination coverage has exceeded 180.80 crore as per provisional reports till 7 a.m. this morning. This has been achieved through 2,12,61,666 sessions.

In the last 24 hours, more than 3 lakh adolescents have been administered with the first dose of Covid vaccine.

More than 17.32 crore balance and unutilised vaccine doses are still available with the states and UTs, as per the ministry.

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