India witnessed a slight rise in COVID-19 with 48,786 fresh cases in the last 24 hours taking the active case tally to 5,23,257, the Union Health Ministry said on Thursday.
With this, India's recovery rate reached 96.97 per cent.
According to the updated data, 1,005 deaths due to coronavirus were reported in India in the last 24 hours. Maximum casualties were reported in Uttarakhand (221), followed by Kerala with 142 daily deaths.
The top five states which registered maximum cases in the last 24 hours are Kerala with 13,658 cases, followed by Maharashtra with 9,771 cases, Tamil Nadu with 4,506 cases, Andhra Pradesh with 3,797 cases and Karnataka with 3,382 cases.
While 71.98 per cent of the new cases were reported from these five states, Kerala was alone responsible for 28 per cent of the new cases.
A total of 61,588 patients recovered in the last 24 hours, the health ministry said. The total recoveries in India climbed to 2,94,88,918 on Thursday.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday chaired a meeting of the Union Council of Ministers and asked them to work towards creating such an atmosphere in the country wherein everyone follows Covid-19 protocols diligently and takes vaccines to stop the third wave of the pandemic.
Underlining that the fight against Covid-19 is not over yet, PM Modi told the ministers that vaccination should be done on a war footing.
PM Modi stressed that people have to remain vigilant to contain the spread of the virus, sources said.
The prime minister said such an atmosphere should be created that all remain vigilant while strictly following COVID-19 protocols and get vaccinated so that there wouldn't be any third wave, sources said.
He suggested the ministers to follow COVID-19 protocols and wear masks while visiting their constituencies.
PM Modi also said several "myths" were created during the pandemic and that these should be countered.
