Coronavirus India Updates: New Infections Drop For Third Day; Total Cases Top 2 Crore

Fresh cases of Covid-19 in India dropped for a third day, at a time the government is scrambling to ramp up procurement of vaccines.

Over 3.57 lakh people tested positive for the virus in a 24-hour period, according to the Health Ministry’s update as of 8 a.m. on May 4, taking the total number of confirmed cases above 2 crore.

More than 3,000 patients have succumbed to the illness daily for a week now, overwhelming the country’s crematoriums and burial grounds. That took the total death toll above 2.22 lakh.

Key Numbers:

• Total confirmed cases: 2,02,82,833
• Total number of active cases: 34,47,133
• Total patients cured/discharged: 1,66,13,292
• Total deaths: 2,22,408
• Number of fresh cases in last 24 hours: 3,57,229
• One-day recoveries: 3,20,289
• One-day deaths: 3,449

The central government will supply 59.7 lakh vaccine doses to states and union territories for free over the next three days. So far, the centre has provided 16.54 crore shots.

To be sure, this stock is only to be used for vaccinating those over 45 years of age. States and private hospitals have to procure vaccines from manufacturers directly for administering it to 18-44 year olds.

The Health Ministry also clarified that it has placed additional orders for 11 crore doses of Covishield with Serum Institute of India and 5 crore jabs of Covaxin with Bharat Biotech Ltd.

Read more about India’s vaccine stock and pipeline here.