India's total tally of COVID-19 cases rose to 3,29,03,289 with the country reporting 45,352 new infections today. With 366 virus-related deaths, the total fatality climbed to 4,39,895, according to the data updated at 8 am.
The active cases increased to 3,99,778 comprising 1.22 per cent of the total infections, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate was recorded at 97.45 per cent, the ministry said. An increase of 10,195 cases has been recorded in the active COVID-19 caseload in a span of 24 hours.
As many as 16,66,334 tests were conducted on Thursday taking the total cumulative tests conducted so far for detection of COVID-19 in the country to 52,65,35,068.
A negative RT-PCR result not older than 72 hours has been made mandatory for passengers travelling to India from seven more countries, including, China and South Africa. The move comes after the discovery of a new Covid variant - C.1.2 - which could be more infectious and has shown signs of evading protection provided by vaccines.
While earlier this rule was only applicable for arrivals from the UK, Europe and Middle East, seven more countries - South Africa, Bangladesh, Botswana, China, Mauritius, New Zealand, Zimbabwe - have been added to the list today, according to a latest guideline by Ministry of Health.
The new variant was first detected in South Africa in May. It has since been found in China, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mauritius, England, New Zealand, Portugal and Switzerland.
