Coronavirus cases: 44,489 more COVID-19 cases reported in last 24 hours in India

New Delhi, Nov 26: Union health ministry on Thursday said that India recorded a jump of 44,489 daily cases of the coronavirus while 524 people died of the virus in the last 24 hours. Though the country's infection tally has reached 9,266,705, the steady rise in the number of people recovering from the disease continues to bind hope.

As many as 8,679,138 have recovered pushing the recovery rate to 93.66 per cent. However, the virus has so far claimed 135,223 lives.

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On Wednesday, the Union ministry of home affairs introduced a fresh set of COVID-19 guidelines and empowered states to put in place stricter measures in order to contain the spread of the viral disease.

In a statement, the MHA said, States and Union territories (UTs) may impose local restrictions such as night curfews but need to consult the central government before imposing a lockdown outside containment zones.

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The guidelines also spoke about "Surveillance, Containment and Caution", that were aimed at consolidating "the substantial gains that have been achieved against the spread of COVID-19".

In cities where the weekly case positivity rate - proportion of samples found positive for the COVID-19 - is more than 10 per cent, the Centre advised states and UTs to consider staggering office timings and implementing other suitable measures to reduce the number of employees in the premises at the same time.

Meanwhile, the states have been asked to start preparing with vaccine-related side-effects as one of the measures towards safe vaccine delivery among masses.

The health ministry told states, "...steps need to be taken to strengthen Adverse Events Following Immunisation (AEFI) surveillance following COVID-19 vaccinations to maintain confidence in safety of vaccines. MoHF has identified initiatives which are essential to further strengthen the existing AEFI Surveillance System of India so that timely and complete AEFI reporting for COVID-19 vaccination is possible..."

The Centre has directed states to strengthen their vaccine steering committees and other sub-committees to spearhead vaccine delivery till the last mile.