Covid-19 update: With 23,067 fresh infections, India's tally past 1,01,46,845

India has logged in 23,067 fresh Covid-19 infections, taking the total number of cases to 1,01,46,845. With 336 deaths in the last 24 hours, the overall tally of fatalities has climbed to 1,47,092, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said.

As many as 97,17,834 people have recovered, with 24,661 recovering in the last 24 hours. As of now, there are 2,81,919 active cases. The recovery rate stands at 95.75 per cent while the fatality rate is 1.45 per cent.

A total of 16,63,05,762 samples have been tested for Covid-19 till now. Of these, 9,97,396 samples were tested on Thursday: Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR)

Here're some more updates:

*Maharashtra continues to be the worst-hit state by the pandemic till date with 19.1 lakh cases.

*Delhi's Sacred Heart Cathedral closed for visitors on #Christmas, due to the ongoing COVID19 pandemic: ANI

*Kerala, Maharashtra, West Bengal, Chhattisgarh, Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Karnataka, Gujarat and Delhi account for over 76 per cent of daily cases reported.

*Over 75 per cent of the deaths are being reported from Maharashtra, West Bengal, Kerala, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Chhattisgarh, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka.

*Moderna Covid-19 vaccine distribution started in Canada by FedEX, Innomar Strategies, reported reuters.

*US government will require negative Covid-19 tests for all UK passengers, says CDC as new aggressive mutant takes over.

*Chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday said Delhi was fully prepared for the rollout of Covid-19 vaccination. 

*More than 600,000 people in the United Kingdom have received the first dose of Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine since inoculations began in the country earlier this month, according to reuters.

* Iran has allocated funds to purchase vaccines against the novel coronavirus from abroad, Governor of the Central Bank of Iran Abdolnasser Hemmati said.

*Mexico has kick started its vaccination drive against the novel coronavirus, with a vaccine developed by US company Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech.

Meanwhile,  the overall number of global covid-19 cases has topped 79.3 million, while the deaths have surged to more than 1.74 million, according to the Johns Hopkins University.