Coronavirus cases: India records 11,610 new COVID-19 cases, 100 fatalities in last 24 hours

New Delhi, Feb 17: Union health ministry on Wednesday said that India's tally of coronavirus went up to 10,937,320, after 11,610 new cases were recorded in the last 24 hours. The number of active cases went down by 323 and currently stands at 1,36,549.

According to the health ministry, India recorded 100 fresh fatalities due to the infection in the said period, which took the death toll to 1,55,913. On Tuesday, India reported four cases of South Africa variant strain of S-CoV-2 and one case of Brazil variant strain, the health ministry said.

"The travellers from both the countries and their contacts have been tested and quarantined," said Dr Balram Bhargava, Director General of Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).

Meanwhile, the ongoing vaccination programme saw doses being administered to over 88 lakh healthcare and frontline workers. The countrywide vaccination drive was rolled out on January 16 and vaccination of the frontline workers started from February 2.

Maharashtra and Kerala continue to report the highest number of Covid-19 cases and have the maximum number of active cases, the health ministry has said.

"Similarly like last week, the main causes of worry are again from two states because Kerala has 61,550 cases while 27,383 cases are in Maharashtra," said health secretary Rajesh Bhushan.