India reports 22,854 new Covid-19 cases for the first time this year

There are 1,89,226 active cases in the country

India recorded 22,854 cases of coronavirus infection in a day, the highest in around two-and-half-months, taking the total tally of Covid-19 cases to 1,12,85,561, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Thursday. This is the first time in this year that the country saw a daily Covid-19 spike of over 22,000 cases.

The death toll increased to 1,58,189 with 126 daily new fatalities, the data updated at 8 am showed.

The total active cases have increased to 1,89,226 which now comprises 1.68 per cent of the total infections.

The number of people who have recuperated from the disease climbed to 1,09,38,146 which translates to a national Covid-19 recovery rate of 96.92 per cent, while the case fatality rate stands at 1.40 per cent, the data stated.

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

According to the ICMR, 22,42,58,293 samples have been tested up to March 10 with 7,78,416 samples being tested on Wednesday.

A total of 2,56,85,011 doses of Covid-19 vaccines have been administered so far.

On Wednesday, India had reported 17,921 Covid-19 cases and 133 deaths.