India sees 26,382 new COVID-19 cases, 387 new deaths

India has recorded 26,382 fresh coronavirus cases in the past 24 hours, taking the country’s total number of cases to 99,32,548.

Among the 99.3 lakh coronavirus cases, India now has a total of 3,32,002 active Covid-19 cases while 94,56,449 have been discharged so far. In the past 24 hours, the country also recorded 33,813 new discharges.

With 387 new Covid-19 deaths in 24 hours, India’s death toll has gone up to 1,44,096.

The national recovery rate is at 95.21 percent while the COVID-19 case fatality rate stands at 2.46 percent. The COVID-19 active caseload remained below 4 lakh for the 10th consecutive day.

In India’s worst hit state, Maharashtra, the seven day average of daily cases has dropped nearly 82 percent from the peak of 22,149 seen on September 17.

According to the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), a total of 15,66,46,280 samples have been tested for COVID-19 upto December 15 with 10,85,625 samples being tested on December 15.

Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan said preparations are underway to prepare local officials to receive and administer vaccines, a process that is likely to cover close to 300 million people by the middle of next year.

He also said that India is showing a sustained improvement in containing the Covid-19 outbreak. But at the same time , they warned that trends in other countries are also a strong reminder of how the situation can quickly go out of control even if one peak is contained.