22 states/UTs report positivity rate less than national average: Health Ministry

New Delhi [India], October 8 (ANI): At least 22 states including union territories (UTs) have a COVID-19 positivity rate less than the national average which is at 8.19 per cent, informed the Union Health Ministry on Thursday.
These states include--Bihar (2.61), Gujarat (3.30), Jharkhand (3.82), Uttar Pradesh (3.92), Himachal Pradesh (4.93), Rajasthan (5.11), Madhya Pradesh (5.98), Punjab (5.99), Haryana (6.65), Odisha (6.71), Uttarakhand (7.13), Jammu and Kashmir (7.24), Telangana (7.38) and West Bengal (8.15).
While India is fulfilling the World Health Organisation's (WHO) advise of 140 tests per day per million population, the country is testing more than 15 lakh COVID-19 samples every day, said the health ministry.
Nearly 12 lakh tests were conducted in the last 24 hours in the country. With 11,94,321 tests conducted in the last 24 hours, the cumulative tests have crossed 8.34 crores (8,34,65,975), it said.
In another row of achievements, 35 states/UTs have exceeded the advised number of tests. The national average of tests per day per million population stands at 865.
About 83,011 single day COVID-19 recoveries were registered in last 24 hours as against 78,524 new confirmed cases. The total recovered cases stand at 58,27,704. The gap between the total number of recoveries and active cases has crossed 49 lakh (49,25,279).
Active cases in the country are less than 10 lakh for the 17th day in a row. Presently, the 9,02,425 active cases comprise merely 13.20 per cent of the total positive cases.
A higher number of recoveries has aided the national recovery rate to further improve to 85.25 per cent, said the health ministry.
According to the government, about 75 per cent of the new recovered cases are observed to be concentrated in 10 states/UTs. Maharashtra alone has contributed the maximum with more than 16,000 single day recovery.
At least 78,524 new confirmed cases were recorded in the last 24 hours while 79 per cent of the new cases are from 10 states and UTs. Maharashtra continues to be the state reporting a very high number of new cases with more than 14,000 cases followed by Karnataka with nearly 11,000 cases.
The government said that at least 971 COVID-19 case fatalities have been reported in the past 24 hours.
Of these, nearly 82 per cent are concentrated in ten state/UTs of Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Andhra Pradesh, Punjab, Chhattisgarh, and Madhya Pradesh.
More than 36 per cent of new fatalities reported are from Maharashtra i.e 355 deaths. (ANI)