A day after India reported the lowest single-day spike in 173 days since the virus outbreak, the country witnessed a slight surge in fresh COVID-19 infections with 23,950 new cases recorded in the last 24 hours, according to the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. The overall cases in the country have now reached 1,00,99,066 including 2,89,240 active cases. The trend of daily new recoveries outnumbering fresh infections continues with 26,895 recoveries reported in the last 24 hours. The total recoveries have now reached 96,63,382. 333 people died due to coronavirus in the last 24 hours, taking the cumulative toll to 1,46,444. Kerala with 61,635 active infections is now the worst-affected state followed by Maharashtra with 59,502 active cases. According to the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), a total of 16,42,68,721 samples tested for COVID-19 up to December 22, of these, 10,98,164 samples were tested yesterday. On Tuesday, the Union Health Ministry informed that the share of active cases in the total positive cases has further shrunk below to 2.90 per cent, which is the lowest after 163 days and the recovery rate improved to 95.65 per cent.
