According to the Union Health Ministry, India's daily Covid-19 tally saw a marginal jump on Thursday as the country recorded 1,72,433 cases of infection.
It was 6.84% higher than Wednesday when the country had logged 161,386 infections. In the last 24 hours ending at 8 am, the country also logged 1,008 deaths.
The number of active cases is at 15,33,921 and accounts for 3.67 per cent of the total cases. The daily positivity rate is 10.99 per cent, the data also showed.
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The overall death toll now stands at 4,98,983, and the nationwide tally jumped to 41,803,318, according to the ministry data.
The steep rise in the daily death toll since Wednesday was the result of Kerala adding a backlog of deaths.