India recorded 257,299 fresh coronavirus cases on Saturday, taking its tally to 26,289,290, according to the data of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
The death count rose to 295,525 after 4,194 more patients died in the last 24 hours.
After recording over 3 lakh cases for nearly three weeks, India's daily cases dropped below the mark earlier this week. Nearly 30,000 Covid patients have died since May 15.
Vaccinations showed a downward graph amid fears of a third wave in the next six to eight months.
Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare, Dr. Harsh Vardhan, assessed the public health response to Covid-19 and the progress of vaccination with nine States and UTs. "Recovery outnumbers new active cases for the last 8 days consistently," the minister said.
With 36,184 cases reported in the past 24 hours, Tamil Nadu has reported the highest cases. It is followed by Karnataka with 32,218 new infections. Maharashtra reported 29,644 cases, Kerala 29,673, Andhra Pradesh 20,937 cases, and 19,006 for West Bengal.
The six most affected states by total cases are Maharashtra (5,527,092), Karnataka (2,367,742), Kerala (2,293,632), Tamil Nadu (1,770,988), Uttar Pradesh (1,659,265), and Andhra Pradesh (1,542,079).
Meanwhile, coronavirus cases rise unabated across the globe with 166,451,351 infected by the deadly virus. While 147,253,554 have recovered, 3,456,917 have died so far.
The US remains the worst-hit country with 33,802,324, followed by India, Brazil, France and Turkey. However, in the past seven days, India has added the highest number of fresh cases at 1,984,554, followed by the Brazil (461,731) and Argentina (204,941).
