India reports 17,407 new Covid-19 cases

The death toll from the disease has reached 157,435 people, with 89 new fatalities being recorded over the past day. More than 10.82 million people have recovered in India since the start of the outbreak.

According to the ICMR, 21,91,78,908 samples have been tested up to March 3 with 7,75,631 samples being tested on Wednesday.

The 89 new fatalities include 42 from Maharashtra, 15 from Kerala and 12 from Punjab.

A total of 1,57,435 deaths have been reported so far in the country including 52,280 from Maharashtra followed by 12,504 from Tamil Nadu, 12,346 from Karnataka, 10,914 from Delhi, 10,272 from West Bengal, 8,728 from Uttar Pradesh and 7,170 from Andhra Pradesh.

The health ministry stressed that more than 70 per cent of the deaths occurred due to comorbidities.

"Our figures are being reconciled with the Indian Council of Medical Research," the ministry said on its website, adding that state-wise distribution of figures is subject to further verification and reconciliation.

Meanwhile, a total of 1.66 crore beneficiaries have been vaccinated for Covid-19 in India so far, according to the Union Health Ministry's provisional report.

On March 3, the 47th day of the immunisation drive, over 9.94 lakh beneficiaries were vaccinated, the ministry said. Of these, 8.31 lakh beneficiaries were given the first shot of the two-dose regime. About 1.62 lakh healthcare and frontline workers received the second dose, the ministry added.

India comes second in terms of the number of confirmed Covid-19 cases, following the United States, with more than 28.78 million Covid-19 patients.

The World Health Organization declared the Covid-19 outbreak a pandemic on March 11. To date, more than 115.17 million people have been infected with the coronavirus worldwide, with over 2.55 million fatalities, according to Johns Hopkins University.