A year into the pandemic and after rounds of vaccination, India - a country of 1.34 billion people - on Tuesday reported 94 Covid deaths in 24 hours, the lowest since May 14 last year. India's Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said the country last reported below 8,500 new cases on June 1 when there were 7,761 cases.

On May 14, 2020, India recorded 98 deaths before its steady rise to 1,247 in mid-September, the highest deaths in 24 hours.

For the past four days, the country has been recording less than 15,000 daily new infections. Also, the death toll has remained below the 300-mark for over a month.

The recovery rate has increased to 97.05 per cent, while the fatality rate is down to 1.43 per cent.

A total of 19,77,52,057 samples have been tested for COVID-19 up to February 1, said the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).

Meanwhile, India's total active caseload continues to follow a consistent downward slope. It has dropped to 168,000. The present active caseload now consists of just 1.52 per cent of India's total positive cases.

Since January, daily recoveries have consistently exceeded daily new cases, the health ministry informed.

A total of 31 States/Union Territories (UT)s have less than 5,000 active cases as of date. Andaman and Nicobar Islands reported four active cases followed by Daman & Diu & Dadra & Nagar Haveli with six active cases.

Total active cases in Delhi is 1,265.

As much as 79.69 per cent of the total active cases are from five states/UTs. Two states alone, Kerala and Maharashtra, cumulatively account for a bulk (69.41 per cent) of India's total active cases.

A total of 39,50,156 vaccinations against COVID-19 have taken place in India in a fortnight after the approval of the two Covid vaccines.

A 63.34 per cent of the total vaccinated beneficiaries are from eight states - Uttar Pradesh accounts for the maximum share of vaccinated beneficiaries followed by Rajasthan and Karnataka.

India stands at the fifth position globally in terms of the number of vaccine doses administered within a country. This is despite the fact that many countries had initiated their vaccination campaign before India.

(IANS)