Coronavirus: India becomes third nation to cross 4-lakh deaths mark

New Delhi : India on Friday achieved a grim milestone as it became the third nation in the world to cross 4-lakh mark in total deaths due to coronavirus. Only the United States and Brazil are ahead of India, which has the lowest deaths per million population among top 10 countries.

The nation on Friday morning logged 46,617 new cases in the last 24 hours, a marginal drop of about four percent from yesterday. The positivity rate remains below 5 per cent for the 25th straight day.

Meanwhile, active cases in India decreased by 13,000 in last 24 hours, taking the total tally down to 5.09 lakh cases. The total number of active cases now constitute only 1.67 per cent of the total cases.

Kerala contributed the maximum number of coronavirus cases (12,868), followed by Maharashtra (9,195 cases) and Tamil Nadu (4,481 cases).

Delhi recorded 91 new coronavirus cases on Thursday.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, addressing doctors on the occasion of National Doctors' Day on Thursday, said that despite the population pressure, India's per lakh population rate of infection and death rate has still been manageable compared with more developed countries. This was possible because the government gave paramount importance to healthcare infrastructure to combat the pandemic, he said.