Kerala reported a steep spike in Covid-19 cases with 563 deaths being recorded on Saturday morning. According to the state government, the higher death count on October 22 is due to release of pending appeal counts. Kerala Covid-19 death count included 292 deaths that were reported till June 14, but not recorded due to lack of adequate documentation. Another 172 deaths in the state have been added to the Covid-19 tally as per the new guidelines approved by the Centre.

Earlier this month, Kerala announced 7,000 'missing' Covid-19 deaths that are being added in a phased manner to the daily tally.

Kerala's Covid-19 death backlog also pushed up the total number of deaths being reported in the country due to the pandemic. India reported 666 Covid-19 deaths on Saturday, taking the total death toll in the country to 4.5 lakhs.

While Maharashtra recorded 40 deaths followed by Tamil Nadu with 19 deaths. In all, 15 states saw an increase in the number of deaths.

As far as the number of active cases are concerned, Assam saw a rise of 104 cases followed by Jammu and Kashmir and West Bengal with 56 and 42 cases respectively. In all, 11 states reported an increase in the number of active cases.

The new Covid-19 cases stood at 16,326 while active cases have declined to 1.737 lakh (1,73,728), the lowest in 233 days, according to the Union Health Ministry’s data on Saturday.

The daily positivity rate stood at 1.20 per cent and the weekly positivity rate was recorded at 1.24 per cent, according to the Health Ministry. Till now, the cumulative doses administered in the country under the nationwide Covid-19 vaccination drive has exceeded 101.30 crore.

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