India reported 42,982 new COVID-19 cases  and 533 deaths in the
last 24 hours, data from the Union Ministry of Health confirmed on Thursday.

A total of 41,726 patients recovered in the last 24 hours taking the total
number of recoveries to 3,09,74,748.  India’s recovery rate currently stands at 97.37%.

There are 4,11,076 active COVID-19 cases in the country, making up 1.29% of
total cases.  The weekly positivity rate remains below 5% and is currently at 2.37%.

The daily positivity rate has continued to remain below 3% and is at 2.58%
as of Thursday.

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India has been witnessing a gradual drop in cases after a ferocious second
wave crippled the country’s health care infrastructure over the summer. At the
peak of the second wave, the country reported over 4,00,000 cases and over
4,500 deaths everyday. 

The government has cautioned that the second wave is “still raging” and that eight states have shown an increase in R-value, that is the reproductive rate of the virus.  

Daily cases have been hovering around the 30,000-40,000 mark
recently. As part of the nationwide vaccination drive, India has administered 48.93 crore COVID-19 vaccines so far.  

India’s COVID tally had crossed the 20-lakh mark on August 7; 50 lakh on
September 16 and surpassed one crore on December 19. The country crossed the
grim milestone of 2 crore cases on May 4 and 3 crore on June 23.The Health