For the first time in nearly three years - since the pandemic numbers first started rising in March 2020 - India reported less than 100 new Covid-19 cases on Monday, as infections continued to drop to fresh lows.
Also, no Covid death was reported in the country for four days at a stretch, again a first since March 2020.India reported 83 fresh cases on Monday, down from 114 on the previous day.
India had first reported more than 100 cases in a day on March 27, 2020, and the daily tally hadn't fallen to double digits since then, as per TOI's Covid database.
Cases have been steadily falling in India despite the massive wave in China, and consequent fears of a fresh surge in the country.
In the week ending Sunday (January 9-15), India recorded 1,062 Covid cases, which too was the lowest weekly tally since March 23-29, 2020.
Deaths from the virus too have fallen to the lowest since March 2020.
In the week gone by, just four fatalities were recorded.
And, for four consecutive days till Monday, the country reported no Covid deaths - again, the longest period of zero fatalities since March 25, 2020.South India, along with Maharashtra, continued to register a majority of new cases in the country.
Of the 1,062 new infections recorded last week, as many as 831 came from Maharashtra and the south.
Kerala again logged the highest number of cases during the week - 314, down from 383 in the preceding seven days.
Like in the week before.
Karnataka reported the second highest case count at 214, as compared to 225 in the previous week, followed by Maharashtra with 124, marginally down from 132.
Delhi, which reported zero new cases on Monday, had logged 32 last week, down from 48.
Among states and UTs, Pondicherry was the only place which saw a minor surge in cases.
The UT recorded 80 fresh infections during the week, up from 35 in the previous seven days.