New Delhi (TIP): India logged 7,145 new coronavirus infections taking the total tally of Covid cases to 3,47,33,194, while the active cases declined to 84,565, according to the Union health ministry data updated on Saturday, Dec 18.

The death toll climbed to 4,77,158 with 289 more fatalities, according to the data updated at 8 am.

The daily rise in new coronavirus infections has been recorded below 15,000 for the last 51 days now.

The active cases comprise 0.24 per cent of the total infections, the lowest since March 2020, while the national Covid recovery rate was recorded at 98.38 per cent, the highest since March 2020, the health ministry said.

A decline of 1,850 cases has been recorded in the active Covid caseload in a span of 24 hours.

The daily positivity rate was recorded at 0.57 per cent. It has been less than 2 per cent for last 75 days. The weekly positivity rate was recorded at 0.62 per cent. It has been below 1 per cent for the last 34 days, according to the health ministry.

The number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 3,41,71,471, while the case fatality rate was recorded at 1.37 per cent.

The cumulative doses administered in the country so far under the nationwide Covid vaccination drive has exceeded 136.66 crore.

The 289 new fatalities include 243 from Kerala and 12 from Maharashtra.

Kerala has been reconciling its Covid fatalities for the last few days. Therefore, the death toll of the state is high.

A total of 4,77,158 deaths have been reported so far in the country, including 1,41,329 from Maharashtra, 44,189 from Kerala, 38,282 from Karnataka, 36,667 from Tamil Nadu, 25,100 from Delhi, 22,915 from Uttar Pradesh and 19,652 from West Bengal.

Govt: Vaccinating all to get priority over booster dose

The Indian government said on Friday, Dec 17,  that vaccinating the adult population with both doses of the Covid vaccine will be its first priority — ahead of booster doses.

India has thus far (till Friday night), completely vaccinated 57.6% of its adult population of 940 million and partly vaccinated an additional 30.1%. These are levels at which vaccine hesitancy kick in, and given that, as well as growing scientific evidence that booster doses of vaccines may be required to prevent infections by the highly transmissible micron strain of the SARS-CoV2 virus.