At least 3 Indians re-infected with COVID-19: ICMR chief

The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) on Tuesday said that as many as 3 people have been infected with coronavirus twice in the country. Two cases were reported from Mumbai, while one was reported from Ahmedabad, said ICMR director-general Professor Balram Bhargava.

As per the World Health Organization (WHO), there are 24 cases of reinfection around the world.

Addressing a presser, Bhargava said that it's still not decided on how many days it takes to ascertain a case of reinfection. “However, we're taking cut-off of about 100 days,” added the ICMR chief.

The number of new coronavirus infections reported daily across the country dropped below 60,000, even as the caseload surged to 71,75,880 and the total recoveries crossed 62 lakh, the Union Health Ministry data stated on Tuesday.

The total cases mounted to 71,75,880, with 55,342 infections being reported in a day, while death toll climbed to 1,09,856 as the virus claimed 706 lives in a span of 24 hours, the data updated at 8 am showed.

For the fifth day in a row, the active cases of COVID-19 remained below 9 lakh.

The country has been recording less than 75,000 new infections daily for the fifth consecutive day and fatalities below 1,000 for 10 straight days.

India registered a record single-day increase of 97,894 COVID-19 cases on September 17.

There are 8,38,729 active cases of coronavirus in the country which comprises 11.69 per cent of the total caseload, the data stated.

The case fatality rate due to COVID-19 was recorded at 1.53 per cent.

India's COVID-19 tally had crossed the 20-lakh mark on August 7, 30 lakh on August 23 and 40 lakh on September 5 . It went past 50 lakh on September 16, 60 lakh on September 28 and crossed 70 lakh on October 11.

(With additional inputs from PTI)