47 districts in 23 states have not reported a new case in 14 days

No new cases were reported in 47 districts across 23 states in the last 14 days, the health ministry said today. Mahe in Puducherry and Kodagu in Karnataka have not reported a case in the last 28 days.

On April 16, the ministry had listed 27 such districts. Of these, Patna, Panipat and Nadia have reported cases since. Twenty-three new districts were added to the list.

Since 5 p.m. on April 17, India has reported 957 new COVID-19 cases--more than the daily average of 909 in the last 10 days. Total cases in the country stand at 14,792, as of 5 p.m. on April 18. More than 2,000 patients have recovered and the rate has increased by 0.8 percentage points in the last 24 hours to 13.6%.

Eight new deaths have been reported since 8 a.m. today--seven of which were in Gujarat. The state reported 10 deaths in 24 hours--its highest single-day death toll. Gujarat is the only state, other than Maharashtra, which has reported a death every day for the last 10 days.

Over 100 patients have recovered in Tamil Nadu since yesterday. Active cases in the state have been decreasing for three days now. Among five states with the most cases, only Tamil Nadu has shown a three-day consecutive decrease in active cases.

Three in four COVID-19 deaths in India have been among those older than 60, the health ministry said. While 14.4% were younger than 45, 10.3% were aged between 45 and 60 years. Overall, 83% of the patients who have died had comorbidities.

(Compiled by Shreya Raman)