New Delhi, December 5: A total of 8,895 new COVID-19 cases and 2,796 deaths were reported across the country in the last 24 hours, informed Union Health Ministry on Sunday.

As per the ministry, the spike in deaths was reported as 2,426 reconciled deaths reported by Bihar were adjusted in today's database. Kerala cleared the backlog of 263 deaths hence deaths showing a spike, said the ministry.

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The cumulative death toll has now reached 4,73,326. The active caseload of the country stands at 99,155. The active cases account for less than 1 per cent of total cases and is currently at 0.29 per cent, the lowest since March 2020, the ministry said.

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In the last 24 hours, 6,918 recoveries were reported. With this, the total recoveries mounted to 3,40,60,774. Consequently, the recovery rate is at 98.35 per cent.

The daily positivity rate is 0.73 per cent. It remained less than 2 per cent for the last 62 days. The weekly positivity rate remained below 1 per cent for the last 21 days and was recorded at 0.80 per cent.

According to the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), 12,26,064 samples were tested on Saturday. Total 64,72,52,850 samples have been tested upto December 4, to detect the presence of infection.

India has so far has registered four positive cases of new COVID-19 variant Omicron, which was first detected in South Africa.

Meanwhile, in the ongoing nationwide COVID-19 vaccination drive 127.61 crore vaccine doses have been administered to the eligible beneficiaries. The nationwide vaccination drive commenced on January 16, 2021.

The ministry has said that over 138 crore (1,38,95,38,030) vaccine doses have been provided to States and UTs so far through the government's free of cost channel and through direct state procurement category. More than 21.13 crore (21,13,99,456) balance and unutilized COVID vaccine doses are still available with the States and UTs to be administered, the ministry noted.

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