Over 23 crores COVID-19 tests conducted across the country

New Delhi [India], March 18 : As country witnessing a continuous surge in COVID-19 cases in many of its states, India has tested over 23 crores coronavirus samples till Thursday.
At least 23,03,13,163 samples have been conducted so far today, informed a government release.
According to the health ministry statement today, the cumulative national positivity rate continues to remain less than five per cent and stands at 4.98 per cent today.
On the other hand, the country reaches the fast approaching total vaccination coverage of four crore. 3,71,43,255 vaccine doses have been administered through 6,15,267 sessions, as per the provisional report till 7 am today.
These include 75,68,844 Health Care Workers (HCWs) (1st dose), 46,32,940 HCWs (2nd dose), 77,16,084 FLWs (1st dose) and 19,09,528 FLWs (2nd Dose), 24,57,179 beneficiaries aged more than 45 years with specific co-morbidities (1st Dose) and 1,28,58,680 beneficiaries aged more than 60 years.
More than 20 lakh (20,78,719) vaccine doses were administered on day-61 of the vaccination drive till March 17.
Of the total, 17,38,750 beneficiaries were vaccinated across 28,412 sessions for the first dose (HCWs and FLWs) and 3,39,969 HCWs and FLWs received the second dose of vaccine.
Meanwhile, a total active caseload has reached 2,52,364 today, comprising 2.20 per cent of the total positive cases. A net incline of 17,958 cases recorded from the total active caseload in the last 24 hours.
The graph below gives a snapshot of the COVID-19 scenario in the country.
Five states including Maharashtra, Punjab, Karnataka, Gujarat and Tamil Nadu continue to report a surge in the coronavirus daily new cases. 79.54 per cent of the new cases are from these five states.
35,871 new cases were registered in the last 24 hours.
Maharashtra has reported the highest daily new cases at 16,620 (accounting for 63.21 per cent of the daily new cases). It is followed by Kerala with 1,792 while Punjab reported 1,492 new cases.
Rise of daily new cases being witnessed in Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Punjab, Madhya Pradesh, Delhi, Gujarat, Karnataka and Haryana.
While Kerala reporting a consistently declining trend over the last one month.
Country's cumulative recoveries stand at 1,10,63,025 today. The national recovery rate is 96.41 per cent. 17,741 recoveries were registered in the last 24 hours.
172 deaths were reported in the last 24 hours.
Five states account for 84.88 per cent of the new deaths. Maharashtra saw the maximum casualties (84). Punjab follows with 35 daily deaths and Kerala reported 13 deaths in the last 24 hours.
The case fatality rate remains below 1.5 per cent (1.39 per cent) and is continuously declining.
Eighteen states/UTs have not reported any COVID-19 deaths in the last 24 hours. These are Rajasthan, Assam, Chandigarh, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Odisha, Jharkhand, Puducherry, Lakshadweep, Sikkim, Ladakh (UT), Manipur, D&N & D&N, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Tripura, A&N Islands and Arunachal Pradesh.