India’s COVID-19 Vaccination Coverage Exceeds 120 Cr Mark
With the administration of 73,58,017 vaccine doses in the last 24 hours, India’s COVID-19 vaccination coverage has exceeded 121.06 crore (1,21,06,58,262) through 1,25,40,268 sessions, informed the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, on Saturday.
According to the Health Ministry, a total of 10,967 patients recovered in the last 24 hours, which has increased the cumulative tally of recovered patients to 3,39,88,797, since the beginning of the Coronavirus outbreak.
Talking about the recovery rate in the entire country, it stands at 98.34 per cent, the ministry said. Amid the fear of the upcoming third wave and new COVID-19 variant, a total of 8,318 new cases were reported in the last 24 hours.
The ministry also said that the active caseload presently stands at 1,07,019 which constitute 0.31 per cent of the country's total positive cases, which is the lowest since March 2020.
"The testing capacity across the country continues to be expanded. The last 24 hours saw a total of 9,69,354 tests being conducted. India has so far conducted over 63.82 crore (63,82,47,889) cumulative tests," it said.
The weekly positivity rate is at 0.88 per cent which remains less than 1 per cent for the last 13 days now. The daily positivity rate is at 0.86 per cent. The daily positivity rate has remained below 2 per cent for the last 54 days and below 3 per cent for 89 consecutive days now.
According to the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), the new COVID-19 variant identified as B.1.1.529 - has been discovered in countries like Botswana (3 cases), South Africa (6 cases) and Honk Kong (1 case). Apart from that, the new variant has been found in Belgium and Israel as well.
Meanwhile, the Centre Government on Thursday asked all states and union territories to conduct rigorous screening and testing of all international travellers coming from or transiting through South Africa, Hong Kong and Botswana.
In a letter addressed to the additional chief secretary, principal secretary, secretary (Health) of all states and union territories, Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan asked them to ensure that samples of travellers turning positive are sent to designated genome sequencing laboratories promptly.
