For India, the annus horribilis ends on a note of optimism, as the nation crossed a significant milestone in its fight against Covid-19, with the recovery rate crossing 96% on Thursday.

The total recovered cases have crossed 98.6 lakh (98,60,280), the highest globally. The gap between active cases and recovered cases is continuously increasing and stands at 96,02,624.

In another achievement, the active cases have drastically declined to 2.57 lakh. The total positive cases of the country are 2,57,656 and now comprise merely 2.51% of the total cases.

With a high number of Covid-19 patients recovering every day and the sustained fall in the mortality rate, India’s steady trend of registering dipping active cases continues. As many as 21,822 new confirmed cases recorded in the 24 hours to Thursday morning in the country whereas 26,139 new recoveries were registered in the same period. It has led to a net decline of 4,616 cases from the total active caseload.

As many as 77.99% of the new recovered cases are concentrated in 10 states/UTs. Kerala has reported the maximum number of single day recoveries with 5,707 newly recovered cases. In Maharashtra, 4,913 people recovered, followed by 1,588 in Chhattisgarh.

Among the new cases, 79.87% are from 10 states and UTs. Again, Kerala has reported the highest daily new cases at 6,268, followed by Maharashtra with 3,537 new cases.

The 24-hour period also recorded 299 case fatalities, 80.60% of which were in ten states/UTs. Maharashtra reported maximum casualties with 90 new fatalities. Kerala and West Bengal follow with 28.

The consortium of 10 government labs, i.e., INSACOG, has so far found a total of 25 cases of mutant UK virus after genome sequencing. Four new cases were found by NIV, Pune and one new case was sequenced in IGIB, Delhi. All 25 persons are in physical isolation in health facilities.