India, on Sunday, recorded 32,937 coronavirus infections, taking the tally of COVID-19 cases to 3,21,92,576, according to the Union Health Ministry data. The active caseload is 3,81,947, as of 8 AM on August 16, the lowest in 145 days. Meanwhile, 417 fatalities pushed the death toll to 4,31,642.

A total of 49,48,05,652 samples were tested up to August 15 of which 11,81,212 were tested on August 15, as per the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR). The recovery rate is currently at 97.48%, the highest since March 2020, the Health Ministry reported.  The weekly positivity rate remained below 5%, currently at 2.01% as the daily rate – 2.79% – stayed under 3% for the third consecutive day. 

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India’s caseload of over 3.19 crore cases is the second-highest in the world, behind only the United States’ more than 3.63 crore confirmed infections. The country’s death toll of over 4.29 lakh is the third-highest in the world, behind only the US (more than 6.19 lakh) and Brazil (more than 5.65 lakh).

As the new COVID-19 cases fluctuate on a daily basis, the threat of the Delta Plus Variant plus looms. It is a mutated version of the highly contagious Delta variant of the coronavirus. The Delta variant, which was responsible for the deadly second wave of COVID in India, is currently raging through the US, Europe and some southeast Asian countries.

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India’s COVID-19 tally had crossed the 20-lakh mark on August 7 last year, 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, 80 lakh on October 29, 90 lakh on November 20 and surpassed the one-crore mark on December 19.

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