India reports 15,786 new Covid-19 cases; active cases lowest in 232 days
India on Friday saw a significant fall in its daily tally of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) after 15,786 were reported in the last 24 hours, which pushed the caseload to 34,143,236, according to the Union health ministry's dashboard. Friday's infection count is 2,668 less (over 14%) than that of Thursday's, when 18,454 cases were reported, the highest single-day spike since October 14.
Also, the daily positivity rate that has remained below 3% for the last 53 days touched 1.19% during the day, the health ministry said.
As many as 231 patients died due to related complications, while 18,641 people were discharged in the last 24 hours. With this, the cumulative count of deaths and recoveries climbed to 4,53,042 and 3,35,14,449, respectively. Active cases now stood at 1,75,745, the lowest in 232 days and constitute 0.51% of the total caseload. The recovery rate, meanwhile, has risen to 98.16%, the highest since March last year.
The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) said on Friday that 59,70,66,481 samples have been tested for Covid-19 so far of which 13,24,263 were tested in the last 24 hours.
Authorities across India have administered 100,59,04,580 vaccine doses to eligible beneficiaries in total. Of these 70,93,86,804 beneficiaries have received the first dose, while 29,65,17,776 have been fully vaccinated against Covid-19.
On Thursday, India became the second country after China to administer over a billion or 100 crore vaccine doses. It took nine months for the Narendra Modi-led government at the Centre to achieve this feat, and now it is aiming towards inoculating the entire population by the end of 2021.
"We are witnessing the triumph of Indian science, enterprise and the collective spirit of 130 crore Indians. Congrats India on crossing 100 crore vaccinations. Gratitude to our doctors, nurses and all those who worked to achieve this feat," Modi wrote on Twitter on Thursday.
Meanwhile, the health ministry said on Thursday that over 1.045 billion vaccine doses have been provided to states and Union Territories (UTs) through the Centre's free of cost channel and direct state procurement strategy. More than 116.5 million balance and unutilised doses are still available with states and UTs to be administered, the ministry added.
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