As the number of COVID-19 cases have seen a steady decline in the last month, the Union government on Tuesday, March 8, announced that all scheduled international flight services will resume from March 27. This applies to all international flights to and from India. Scheduled international flights were suspended on March 23, 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic first broke out, and are being restarted after a two-year hiatus. However, special flights to and from the country were operated under ‘air bubble’ arrangements with around 40 other countries.
On Tuesday, India logged 3,993 new coronavirus infections, the lowest in 662 days, taking the total tally of COVID-19 cases to 4,29,71,308, while the active cases dipped to 49,948, according to the Union Health Ministry data. The death toll climbed to 5,15,210 with 108 fresh fatalities, the data updated at 8 am stated.
The active cases comprise 0.12% of the total infections, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate further improved to 98.68%, the ministry said. A reduction of 4,170 cases has been recorded in the active COVID-19 caseload in a span of 24 hours.
The daily positivity rate was recorded as 0.46% while the weekly positivity rate was 0.68%, according to the ministry. The number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 4,24,06,150 and the case fatality rate was recorded as 1.20%.
The cumulative doses of the vaccine administered in the country so far under the nationwide COVID-19 vaccination drive has exceeded 179.13 crore.
India's COVID-19 tally had crossed the 20-lakh mark on August 7, 2020, 30 lakh on August 23, 40 lakh on September 5 and 50 lakh on September 16. It went past 60 lakh on September 28, 70 lakh on October 11, crossed 80 lakh on October 29, 90 lakh on November 20 and surpassed the one-crore mark on December 19.
A total of 5,15,210 deaths have been reported so far in the country including 1,43,740 from Maharashtra, 66,263 from Kerala, 39,996 from Karnataka, 38,017 from Tamil Nadu, 26,137 from Delhi, 23,476 from Uttar Pradesh and 21,180 from West Bengal.
The ministry stressed that more than 70% of the deaths occurred due to comorbidities.
With PTI inputs