NEW DELHI: India on Monday reported a drop in its COVID-19 count after 69 days as the health ministry’s updated data showed only 7,178 fresh cases were added in the past 24 hours.

The daily positivity rate has been recorded at 9.16 per cent and the weekly positivity rate was pegged at 5.41 per cent.

The active caseload stood at 0.15 per cent of the total infections. With the addition of fresh cases, the active count stood at 65,683 taking the cumulative infection tally to 4.48 crore.

The national COVID-19 recovery rate recorded at 98.67 per cent accounted for 4,43, 01,865 recuperations. The case fatality stood at 1.18 per cent accounting for 5,31,345 with the addition of 16 deaths, which includes eight reconciled by Kerala.

According to the ministry’s website, 220.66 crore doses of Covid vaccine have been administered in the country so far under the nationwide vaccination drive.

Amid rising cases of Covid, the Centre on Friday (April 21), asked eight states including Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra to maintain a strict watch and take preemptive action in any area of concern to control any emerging spread of infection. Pressing Covid still persists, Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan in a letter to Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Kerala, Karnataka, Haryana and Delhi urged them to remain cautious against laxity at any level saying that may nullify the gains made in pandemic management so far.