India reported 44,643 new COVID-19 cases and 464 deaths in last 24 hours, data from the Union Ministry of Health confirmed on Friday. India’s total infection tally now stands at 3,18,56,757, with the death toll being pushed to 4,26,754. 

Active cases in the country have been increased by 3,083 to 4,14,159. They comprise 1.30% of the total caseload. 41,096 patients recovered from the infection in the last 24 hours, taking the total number of recoveries to 3,10,15,844. 

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The recovery rate currently stands at 97.36%. 

Meanwhile, data from the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) confirmed a total of 47,65,33,650 samples have been tested for COVID-19 so far, with 16,40,287. 

The government has administed a total of 49,53,27,595 doese of the COVID-19 vaccine across the country so far. 57,97,808 doses were administered in the last 24 hours. 

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The weekly positivity rate has remained below 5%, currently standing at 2.41%. The daily positivity rate is at 2.72% and has stayed below 3% for an 11th consecutive day. 

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.

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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.

The daily infection count has been hovering around the 40,000-mark for the last few weeks, with experts predicting a third wave of the pandemic will hit the country soon. 

India’s COVID caseload is the second-highest in the world, after the United States, which has recorded over 3.56 crore confirmed cases so far. 

India’s death toll is the third-highest in the world, after Brazil‘s over 5.6 lakh deaths and the over 6.15 lakh fatalities in the US.