India’s cumulative COVID-19 case count crossed the 2.5-crore mark on Monday, the second highest globally. The country’s tally is about 80 lakh less than the United State’s cumulative infections and 90 lakh more than that of Brazil’s.
As many as 2,31,781 new cases and 3,207 deaths were recorded until 9.45 p.m. on Monday. Karnataka reported 38,603 infections, followed by Tamil Nadu (33,075) and Maharashtra (26,616). Maharashtra also recorded 516 casualties, followed by Karnataka (476) and Delhi (340).
The figures do not include cases and deaths from Arunachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Meghalaya, Odisha, Punjab, Tripura, Uttarakhand and Ladakh. The data are sourced from the respective States’ health bulletins.
Only 15.74 lakh samples were tested in the country on Sunday (the results for which were made available on Monday), which is around 2.6 lakh less than the tests conducted on Saturday. However, it is nearly one lakh tests more than those conducted on the previous Sunday. India’s average daily test positivity rate (positive cases identified for every 100 tests) continues to decline. It was 22.7% on May 9 and reduced to 18.2% as on May 16.
Drop in vaccinations
Vaccinations too reduced sharply with only 6.9 lakh doses being administered in the country in the 24 hours ending 7 a.m. on Monday. It is 10.4 lakh doses less than what was recorded in the previous 24 hours and 4.6 lakh doses less than what was recorded in the same period, one week ago.
Only about 15.3% of India’s estimated adult population have received at least one dose of a vaccine as on Monday. Among major States/Union Territories, the three with the highest coverage of at least the single dose among the adult population are Delhi (28.3%), Chhattisgarh (25.8%) and Kerala (24.4%).
