New Delhi, Sep 24 (IANS): India reported 31,382 new Covid-19 cases in the last 24 hours, even as the active cases declined to its lowest in 188 days, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Friday.

The daily Covid fatality crossed the 300-mark yet again as 318 people died in the last 24 hours, pushing the total death count to 4,46,368. The fatality rate stood at 1.33 per cent for the last few weeks.

India had registered 282 deaths on Thursday and 383 on Wednesday.

Kerala, which has been reporting the maximum new cases for the last few weeks, witnessed yet another spike on Thursday as it reported 19,682 new cases against 19,675 on Wednesday.

Similarly, Maharashtra also continued to witness a rise in the new cases. The state reported 3,320 new cases on Thursday against 3,608 reported on Wednesday.

As per the Union Health Ministry's data, a total of 32,542 people recovered in the last 24 hours, pushing the cumulative recoveries so far to 3,28,48,273. The Covid recovery rate stands at 97.78 per cent.

At present, India has 3,00,163 active cases, the lowest in the last 188 days, which is 0.89 per cent of the total positive cases registered since 2020.

The daily positivity rate declined to 2 per cent, which remained below 3 per cent for the last 25 days.

The weekly positivity rate was at 2.07 per cent, remaining below 3 per cent for the last 91 days, according to the health ministry.

A total of 55.99 crore (55,99,32,709) Covid samples have been tested so far in the country, out of which 15,65,696 were tested in the last 24 hours, the Health Ministry data said.

Till date, the country has administered 83.39 crore (84,15,18,026) doses of Covid vaccines, out of which 72,20,642 inoculations were done in the last 24 hours, health ministry's data said.