44,658 fresh Covid-19 cases in India

India has set a new milestone with at least 50 per cent of the eligible population being inoculated with the first dose of Covid vaccine. The country added 44,658 fresh cases over the last 24 hours while deaths from Covid-19 rose by 496, reports NDTV

Kerala contributed 30,077 cases in the past 24 hours to take the total number of those affected in the state by the viral infection to 39,13,506. The southern state has been reporting the most number of coronavirus cases in the country and accounts for the second-highest national tally.

Maharashtra, the worst-hit state in the country, reported 5,108 new infections and 145 fatalities in 24 hours.

No virus-related death was recorded in Delhi on Thursday, while 45 fresh cases were reported with a positivity rate of 0.06 per cent, according to the city's health department. This is the sixteenth time since the starting of the second wave of the pandemic in the national capital that zero fatality has been logged in a day.

Coronavirus cases worldwide have surpassed the 200 million-mark. Cases are rising in about one-third of the world's countries, many of which have not even given half their population a first dose.