India's COVID cases reach 39.54m, says health ministry

India's total COVID-19 cases have reached 39.54 million, as it reported over 300,000 new COVID-19 infections for the fifth straight day.

The overall COVID-19 death toll stands at 489,848, Reuters reports.

The caseload over the last 24 hours, however, was eight percent lower than the day before, data released by the government showed.

At least 72 percent of India's adult population is fully vaccinated, whereas 52 percent of the children from the age group of 15 to 18 years have been inoculated with the first dose of COVID-19 vaccine.

The active cases now comprise 5.69 percent of the total infections, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate has decreased to 93.07 percent, reports NDTV.

The daily positivity rate is up from 17.78% to 20.75 %, while the weekly positivity rate was recorded at 17.03 percent.

The government in a statement said the recovery rate for infected people currently stands at 93.18%.

Since the start of this year, different parts of the country are under varying degrees of restrictions to contain infections caused by highly transmissible omicron variant.

India's capital Delhi has imposed a weekend curfew and even though it was widely expected that Delhi will ease some restrictions, the local government decided on Friday to continue with the curfew.