India recorded 42,640 new Covid-19 cases in the last 24 hours, the lowest since March 23, according to data released by the Union Health and Family Welfare Ministry on Tuesday.

As it continued with a declining trend of coronavirus infection, the country reported 1,167 deaths. This is the fifth consecutive day in the last two months when the toll has been below the 2,000-mark.

It is also the 15th consecutive day when India reported less than one lakh new coronavirus cases. On March 23, India had recorded 47,262 cases while on June 22 India reported 53,256 cases.The overall tally of Covid-19 cases in the country now stands at 2,99,77,861.

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The active cases have now come down below 8 lakh. The country has 6,62,521 active cases presently and has witnessed 3,89,302 deaths so far.

According to the Union Health Ministry, a total of 81,839 people have been discharged in the last 24 hours, taking the total discharge to 2,89,26,038 till date.

The Health Ministry said that a total of 28,87,66,201 people have been vaccinated so far in the country, including 86,16,373 who were administered vaccines in the last 24 hours.

According to the Indian Council of Medical Research, 39,40,72,142 samples have been tested up to June 21 for Covid-19. Of these 16,64,360 samples were tested on Monday.

Global caseload

The overall global Covid-19 caseload has topped 178.6 million, while the deaths have surged to more than 3.87 million, according to the Johns Hopkins University.

In its latest update on Tuesday morning, the University's Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) revealed that the current global caseload and death toll stood at 178,686,182 and 3,870,373, respectively.

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The US continues to be the worst-hit country with the world's highest number of cases and deaths at 33,553,967 and 602,086, respectively, according to the CSSE. In terms of infections, India follows in second place with 29,935,221 cases.

The other worst countries with over 3 million cases are Brazil (17,927,928), France (5,819,575), Turkey (5,375,593), Russia (5,272,328), the UK (4,656,535), Argentina (4,277,395), Italy (4,253,460), Colombia (3,968,405), Spain (3,764,651), Germany (3,730,619) and Iran (3,105,620), the CSSE figures showed.

In terms of deaths, Brazil comes second with 501,825 fatalities. Nations with a death toll of over 100,000 are India (388,135), Mexico (231,187), the UK (128,245), Italy (127,291), Russia (127,641) and France (110,940).

Africa Update

The number of confirmed Covid-19 cases in Africa reached 5,208,206 as of Monday noon, the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) said.

The Africa CDC, the specialised healthcare agency of the African Union, said the death toll from the pandemic stands at 137,600 while 4,620,442 patients across the continent have recovered from the disease, Xinhua news agency reported.

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South Africa, Morocco, Tunisia, Ethiopia and Egypt are the countries with the most cases in the continent, according to the Africa CDC. South Africa has recorded the highest Covid-19 cases in Africa at 1,823,319 while the northern African country Morocco reported 526,651 cases as of Monday.

In terms of the caseload, southern Africa is the most affected region, followed by the northern and eastern parts of the continent, while central Africa is the least affected region in the continent, according to the Africa CDC.

(With inputs from IANS)