India recorded 186,364 fresh cases of Covid-19 on Friday, lowest in last 44 days, according to the Union health ministry’s dashboard on Friday.
The death toll increased to 315,235 as 3,660 people succumbed to the viral disease over the last 24 hours. After Friday’s additions, the overall nationwide tally now stands at 27,555,457.
For the fifteenth consecutive day, recoveries continued to outnumber the daily new cases as 259,459 people were recuperated from Covid-19 over the last 24 hours, it also showed.
The recovery rate has increased to 90.34 per cent, while the weekly positivity rate currently at 10.42 per cent, as per the health ministry figures.
The number of active cases has dropped to 2,343,152.
On August 7 last year, India’s Covid-19 tally crossed the 20 lakh mark. It breached the 30 lakh on August 23, 40 lakh on September 5 and 50 lakh on September 16. It went past 60 lakh on September 28, 70 lakh on October 11, crossed 80 lakh on October 29, 90 lakh on November 20 and surpassed the one-crore mark on December 19 last year.
The second Covid-19 wave in India is now on the “downswing,” the Centre said on Thursday, highlighting that the current number of active cases is still “very high” and advised states and Union territories (UTs) to not let down their guards.
The Centre also stressed that any relaxation of curbs by the states and the union territories(UTs) may be considered at an appropriate time in a graded manner.
In a fresh directive from the Union ministry of home affairs, the Centre directed the states and UTs to continue the ongoing Covid-19 guidelines till June 30. It also asked them to go for intensive and local containment measures in districts with a high number of cases to check the spread of disease.
Meanwhile, India is considering Pfizer’s request to grant it indemnity from costs relating to severe vaccine side-effects, adding that the company had signalled the availability of its Covid-19 shot, possibly from July. “We are engaged with Pfizer because they have indicated availability of … certain volume of vaccines, in the coming months, possibly starting in July,” V K Paul said in a press briefing.
The government is also in discussions with Johnson & Johnson and Moderna.
Centre scrapped local trials for “well-established” foreign vaccines on to fast-track imports after the country faced a severe shortage of vaccines leading to many states halting vaccination drive for people in the age group of 18-44.
The cumulative number of Covid-19 vaccine doses is 205,451,902, according to the provisional report by the health ministry on Thursday.
