India reports 5,326 new COVID-19 cases in last 24 hours, lowest in 581 days

New Delhi [India], December 21 (ANI): India reported 5,326 new COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours, the lowest in 581 days, informed the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Tuesday.
With 453 deaths in the last 24 hours, the death toll from the disease has climbed to 4,78,007.
As per the ministry, the active caseload in the country now stands at 79,097; the lowest in 574 days.
As per the ministry, India has a total of 200 cases of the new Omicron variant of coronavirus so far. Looking at the rising tally of Omicron cases in the country, the Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomics Consortium (INSACOG) in its latest bulletin dated December 13, published on Monday, said that public health measures and investigations are being conducted to look into the new variant.
According to the ministry, as many as 8,043 patients recovered from the virus in the last 24 hours, taking the cumulative tally of recovered patients since the beginning of the pandemic to 3,41,95,060.
The country's recovery rate currently stands at 98.40 per cent, which is the highest since March 2020.
While the daily positivity rate stands at 0.53 per cent which has been less than 2 per cent for the last 78 days, the weekly positivity rate presently stands at 0.59 per cent which has been less than 1 per cent for the last 37 days.
As many as 66.61 crore COVID-19 tests have been conducted so far in the country, stated the ministry.
India's COVID-19 vaccination coverage has reached 138.35 cr (1,38,34,78,1819), as per the provisional reports till 7 am today. (ANI)