Covid update: India reports nearly 49,000 new cases, 1,005 deaths in 24 hours
Premium- Recoveries have outnumbered new cases for the 49th day straight
- As many as 19,21,450 samples were tested on Wednesday
New Covid-19 cases saw another jump on Thursday with 48,786 more people testing positive in the last 24 hours, said the Union health ministry.
The number stood at 45,951 the previous day. With the addition of new infections, the cumulative tally has reached 30,411,634.
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Further, the number of new fatalities has gone upwards too as 1,005 succumbed to the disease in the last 24 hours. The death toll due to coronavirus in India now stands at 3,99,459.
On the brighter side, daily recoveries outnumbered fresh infections for the 49th day straight with 61,588 people getting discharged between Wednesday and Thursday. This took the total number of discharges to 2,94,88,918.
As a result, the active tally has fallen to 5,23,257, declining by 13,807 and constitutes 1.72% of the total infections.
Tests conducted so far
India has tested 41,01,00,044 samples for Covid-19 until now, according to the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).
Out of these, 19,21,450 samples were tested on Wednesday. As many as 19,60,757 in the previous 24 hours period.
Vaccination in India
The country has so far administered 33,57,16,019 anti-Covid jabs. As many as 27,60,345 from these were given in the last 24 hours.
Eight states -- Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Bihar, Gujarat, Karnataka and Maharashtra -- have administered the first dose of the vaccine to more than 50 lakh beneficiaries in the 18-44 age group.
Zydus Cadila seeks emergency nod
Gujarat-based pharmaceutical company Zydus Cadila has applied to the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) seeking Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) for ZyCoV-D - its Plasmid DNA vaccine against Covid-19.
The company conducted the largest clinical trial for its Covid-19 vaccine in India so far in over 50 centres. This was also the first time that any Covid-19 vaccine has been tested in the adolescent population in the 12-18 years age group in India.
Covovax trials
An expert panel of India's central drug authority has recommended against granting permission to the Serum Institute of India (SII) for conducting phase 2/3 trial of Novavax's Covid-19 vaccine 'Covovax' on children.
"The SEC on Covid-19 of the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO), which deliberated on the application, noted that the vaccine has not been approved in any country," a source was quoted as saying by the news agency PTI.
"It also recommended that the Pune-based company should submit the safety and immunogenicity data (of Covovax) from the ongoing clinical trial in adults for considering the conduct of a clinical trial in children," they added.
New procurement rules
Starting today, private hospitals can longer procure Covid-19 vaccines directly from the manufacturers and will have to place orders on the central government's CoWIN platform.
All private hospitals are now required to register on CoWIN as a Private Covid Vaccination Centre (PCVC) to participate in the aggregation mechanism.
The government has also imposed a maximum limit that a private hospital is allowed to order in a month to manage the limited supply and wastage issue.
The Union health ministry will facilitate the supply of these vaccines to private hospitals.
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