Visitors wear masks at the Ernakulam Government Hospital after rise in number of COVID cases, in Kochi, Monday, Dec. 18, 2023.
Credit: PTI
New Delhi: India has logged 797 new cases of COVID-19, the highest in 225 days, while the number of active cases of the infection have been recorded at 4,091, the health ministry said on Friday.
Five new fatalities due to Covid-- two from Kerala and one each from Maharashtra, Puducherry and Tamil Nadu -- have been reported in a span of 24 hours, according to the ministry's data updated at 8 am.
The country had recorded 865 new cases on May 19.
The number of daily cases had dropped to double-digits till December 5, but the cases have again gone up after emergence of a new variant and cold weather conditions.
The daily numbers were in lakhs at the peak of the pandemic, which began in early 2020 and has seen more than 4.5 crore people getting infected and over 5.3 lakh deaths in about four years since then across the country.
The number of people who have recuperated from the disease stands at over 4.4 crore with a national recovery rate of 98.81 per cent, according to the ministry's website.
According to the website, 220.67 crore doses of Covid vaccines have so far been administered in the country.