India registered 62,224 new Covid-19 cases in the last 24 hours, pushing the overall positive cases tally in the country to 2,96,33,105, according to the data released by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Wednesday morning.

The top five states which registered the maximum coronavirus cases are Kerala with 12,246 cases, followed by Tamil Nadu with 11,805 cases, Maharashtra with 7,652 cases, Andhra Pradesh with 5,741 cases and Karnataka with 5,041 cases.

As many as 68.28 per cent of the new Covid-19 cases are reported from these five states, with Kerala alone responsible for 19.68 per cent of the new cases.

Meanwhile, the total Covid-19 active cases in India stands at 8,65,432, while 2,83,88,100 people have been cured of the disease so far.

While India’s active caseload declined by 47,946 in the last 24 hours, the country’s recovery rate now stands at 95.8 per cent.

The nationwide toll due to Covid-19 has mounted to 3,79,573 as 2,542 more people succumbed to the infection in the last 24 hours. Maximum casualties were reported in Maharashtra (1,458), followed by Tamil Nadu with 267 daily deaths.

India has administered a total of 28,00,458 doses in the last 24 hours, which brings the total tally of doses administered to 26,19,72,014.

As India continues to report fresh Covid-19 cases, several states and districts have eased restrictions, while some continue to impose strict norms to curb the spread of the infection.

As the Covid positivity rate dropped to two per cent in Punjab, the state government on Tuesday eased restrictions, allowing restaurants, cinema halls and gyms to operate at 50 per cent capacity beginning Wednesday.

At the same time, the Jharkhand government on Tuesday extended Covid-related lockdown-like restrictions till June 24 with some relaxations, including the opening of shopping malls and departmental stores till 4 pm.

Meanwhile, at a press conference on Tuesday, NITI Aayog Member (Health) VK Paul said a new mutation has been detected called Delta plus variant and it has been there since March in Europe. This was brought into the public domain just a few days ago, he said.

“This is a variant of interest that has not yet been classified as a variant of concern. A variant of concern is in which we have understood that there are adverse consequences to humanity by the increase in transmissibility and severity. This is not known yet about the Delta plus variant,” Paul said.