India daily Covid-19 case count increases to 2,858; Delhi accounts for 899 cases

India on Saturday reported 2,858 Covid-19 cases and 11 deaths in 24 hours, the Union Health Ministry said in its report. With this, the caseload has surged to 43,119,112, while the active cases were declined by 508 in 24 hour span. Altogether India has a total of 18,096 active Covid cases as of May 14. The daily recovery has increased to 3,355 while cumulatively 4,25,76,815 have been recuperated to date, accounting for 98.74% of the total cases.

The daily positivity rate was recorded at 0.59% and the weekly positivity rate was 0.66%, according to the health ministry.

Among the 2,858 Covid-19 cases, Delhi accounts for the most number of Covid cases at 899 with a positivity rate of 3.34%. On the other hand, Maharashtra recorded 263 new Covid infections and two pandemic-related deaths. The state's Covid-19 caseload rose to 78,80,337 and death toll reached 1,47,853.

The cumulative number of Covid vaccine doses administered in the country has crossed 191 crore, the Union Health Ministry added. More than 13 lakh vaccine doses have been administered till 7 pm on Friday.

Meanwhile, the World Health Organization (WHO) has notified that it cannot be said that the acute phase of Covid-19 has disappeared. The UN Health agency said this because several countries have not been able to end the emergency phase of the pandemic.

We live in an interconnected world. And so while some countries may have been able to end the emergency phase of this pandemic, we don't see that in all countries worldwide. So we need to continue to fight this at a global level," WHO's Maria Van Kerkhove said.

Besides, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned during a press briefing this week that “the rising cases in more than 50 countries highlights the volatility of this virus".

Tedros said Covid-19 variants, including mutated versions of the highly infectious omicron, are driving a resurgence of COVID-19 in several countries, including South Africa, which was the first to identify omicron in November.