Seven states and UTs have reported no new Covid-19 deaths in the last three weeks, while 15 have not registered any such fatality in the past 24 hours, the Centre said on Tuesday, underlining that from the pandemic point of view consistent gains are being made in terms of declining new cases and casualities.

The Centre, however, noted that the last national sero survey findings have shown that over 70 per cent of the population is still susceptible to the disease.

The seven states and UTs – Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Arunachal Pradesh, Tripura, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Mizoram, Nagaland and Lakshadweep – have reported no new Covid-19 deaths in last three weeks, Union health secretary Rajesh Bhushan said.

Addressing a Press briefing, he said India was the fastest country to reach 6 million vaccination doses in 24 days.

Bhushan said within the country also some states have performed well while other need to improve their vaccination coverage.

New cases fall below 10k for second time:

The daily new Covid-19 cases fell below 10,000 for the second time this month taking India’s tally of cases to 1,08,47,304, while fresh fatalities remained below 100 for the fourth consecutive day, according to the Union health ministry data updated on Tuesday.

A total of 9,110 new infections were reported in a span of 24 hours. The death toll increased to 1,55,158 with 78 daily new fatalities, the data updated at 8 am showed.

The number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 1,05,48,521 pushing the national recovery rate to 97.25 per cent, while the case fatality rate stands at 1.43 per cent and active caseload remained below 2 lakh at 1,43,625 which comprise 1.32 per cent of the total caseload, the data stated. According to the ICMR, 20,25,87,752 samples have been tested up to February 8.

The 78 new fatalities include 16 from Kerala, 15 from Maharashtra and 11 from Punjab. A total of 1,55,158 deaths have been reported so far including 51,325 from Maharashtra followed by 12,387 from Tamil Nadu,12,239 from Karnataka.

Sustained fall in active cases in India:

Daily Covid-19 cases continue to manifest a downward trend, Union health ministry said on Tuesday underscoring that low number of daily cases and rising recoveries have ensured a sustained fall in active cases.

India’s average daily deaths also continue to sharply decline. From a high of 211 in the second week of January, average daily deaths have reduced to 96 in the second week of February, registering a decline of 55 per cent, it said. With a consistent rise in cumulative recoveries, India’s recovery rate has reached 97.25 per cent, one of the highest globally, the ministry highlighted. The UK, the USA, Italy, Russia, Brazil and Germany have lower recovery rate than India’s, it said.

No fresh Covid death logged in Delhi:

No fresh coronavirus-related death was today recorded in the national capital after a gap of over 10 months.

Delhi logged 100 fresh Covid cases, with the Arvind Kejriwal government asserting that “Delhi’s collective will is gradually winning over the infection”.

~With inputs from PTI~