In the last 24 hours, India recorded 41,649 new COVID-19 cases and 593 fatalities, according to the Union Health Ministry's latest update. The country's total COVID-19 caseload now stands at 3,16,13,993, while the death toll stands at 4,23,810.
The active cases recorded a slight rise for the fourth day running and presently stand at 4,08,920. Among the top contributors to the COVID-19 cases in the country is Kerala. Out of the total active caseload, 1.61 lakh are from Kerala.
However, Kerala reported a slight drop in fresh COVID-19 cases on Friday reporting fewer than 22,000 daily cases for the first time in four days. However, the state's tally remained high at 20,772. The positivity rate in the state continued to rise at 13.6% on Friday.
Numbers rose for the second straight day in Tamil Nadu even as India's daily case count dipped marginally. The state reported 1,947 new cases on Friday, up from 1,859 on the previous day. The weekly positivity rate is currently at 2.42%, daily positivity rate is at 2.34%.
Accordingly, the seven-day rolling average of daily cases crossed 40,000 on Friday after having dipped below that mark on July 13. The average had dropped to a low of 37,680 on July 25 before steadily rising to 40,246 on Friday.
Maharashtra reported 6,600 new cases, a slight drop from Thursday's count of 7,242. There were 593 deaths from the virus recorded in the country on Friday, with Maharashtra accounting for 231, Kerala 116, and Odisha 66.
