New Delhi: Kerala accounts for 52 per cent of the cumulative active COVID-19 cases in the country, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare informed on Thursday.

Addressing a press briefing on COVID-19, Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan said that the number of cases is declining in Kerala but the state still contributes a substantial number of total cases in the country.

“Kerala has highest active cases – 1,44,000 which is 52 per cent of total active cases of the country. Maharashtra has 40,000 active cases, Tamil Nadu has 17,000, Mizoram has 16,800, Karnataka has 12,000 and Andhra Pradesh has a little more than 11,000 active cases,” he said.

As recoveries from Covid continue to outnumber the daily fresh cases, Bhushan pointed out that the national recovery rate has reached almost 98 per cent.

“Active cases are going down across the country and the cumulative recovery rate is rising. At present, the country has a recovery rate of almost 98 per cent,” he said.

“Number of tests done every day has not been reduced. It is still between 15 lakh to 16 lakh tests a day. The rate of positivity is coming down. This is the 13th week continuously when the weekly positivity rate stands below 3 per cent. But our target should be to bring down this rate further. The state governments must target this,” he added.

The Health Secretary said that 18 districts in India are reporting a weekly positivity between 5 per cent to 10 per cent.

Meanwhile, India reported 23,529 new COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours, informed the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare today.

India’s active caseload stands at 2,77,020, which is the lowest in the last 195 days. The active cases account for less than 1 per cent of total cases, currently at 0.82 per cent, the lowest since March 2020.

According to the health ministry, the recovery of 28,718 patients in the last 24 hours has taken the cumulative tally of recovered patients since the beginning of the pandemic to 3,30,14,898. The cumulative death toll due to COVID-19 reached 4,48,062.