Covid update: At 39,097, India reports marginal rise in daily cases; 546 deaths in 24 hours
Premium- India's active Covid tally has jumped up by 3,464
- As many as 16,31,266 tests were conducted on Friday
As many as 39,097 more people tested positive for Covid-19 in the last 24 hours, taking the cumulative caseload to 3,13,32,159, said the Union health ministry on Saturday.
The daily positivity rate has reached 2.40%, staying below 3% for 33 consecutive days. On the other hand, the weekly positivity rate is at 2.22%.
Further, 546 more people succumbed to the disease. The death toll due to coronavirus in India now stands at 4,20,016.
The count of fresh recoveries has remained below new cases with 35,087 people getting discharged in the country. The total number of recoveries has reached 3,05,03,166 while the recovery rate is at 97.35%.
As a result, the active tally has gone up by 3,464 between Friday and Saturday, to rest at 4,08,977. It constitutes 1.31% of the total cases.
Tests conducted so far
India has tested 45,45,70,811 samples for Covid-19 until now, according to the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).
Of the total, 16,31,266 tests were conducted on Friday.
Vaccination in India
The country has so far administered 42,78,82,261 anti-Covid jabs. Out of these, 42,67,799 doses were given in the last 24 hours.
Three states -- Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh -- have administered more than 1 crore cumulative doses of the Covid-19 vaccine in the age group 18-44 years.
Also, Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Chhattisgarh, Delhi, Haryana, Jharkhand, Kerala, Telangana, Himachal Pradesh, Odisha, Punjab, Uttarakhand and West Bengal have vaccinated over 10 lakh beneficiaries of the age group 18-44 years with the first dose, the health ministry said.
Union health minister Mansukh Mandaviya said on Friday that the pace of Covid vaccination had declined after the Centre allowed the states to procure and administer doses.
He said during the implementation of "liberalized pricing and accelerated national Covid vaccination strategy" from 1 May to 20 June, many states faced difficulties in managing the funding and logistics of direct procurement of vaccines.
The minister said that the total number of doses administered declined from 8.99 crore in April to 6.10 crore in May.
The Centre revised its vaccine policy on 21 June.
Third wave scare
The central government said on Friday that the third wave of Covid-19 may occur either due to mutations in the virus or due to the available pool of the susceptible populations.
According to the World Health Organization, the Delta variant of SARS- CoV-2 has shown higher transmissibility than other mutant Variants of Concern (VOCs) identified to date.
There is however no scientific evidence either from India or globally, to show that children get disproportionately infected with Covid-19 including delta variant.
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