India reports 20,044 new COVID cases

According to the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Saturday, India reported 20,044 new COVID cases in the previous 24 hours, surpassing the 20,000 threshold for a third straight day.

Yesterday, 20,038 infections were reported across the nation. With this, the number of active cases in the nation increased from 1,39,073 yesterday to 1,40,760 today.
18,301 COVID patients have recovered in the last 24 hours, according to the Ministry. Since the start of the pandemic, there have been 4,30,63,651 recoveries.
At the moment, the recovery rate is 98.48%.
The mortality toll increased by 56 patients in the past day, bringing it to 5,25,660 overall.

During this time, 4,17,895 COVID tests were performed, with a daily positivity rate of 4.80 percent (slightly higher than yesterday’s rate of 4.44 percent) and a weekly positivity rate of 4.40 percent (4.30 per cent yesterday).

In accordance with the country’s widespread immunisation campaign, 22,93,627 doses of the COVID vaccine were provided in the previous day and 1,99,71,61,438 doses have been given thus far.

The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare announced that the 75-day “COVID Vaccination Amrit Mahotsava” will begin on Friday in an effort to improve the eligible adult population’s uptake of the prophylactic dosage of COVID vaccination.

This particular vaccination campaign, which is a part of the Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav festival, seeks to give free precautionary shots to all individuals (18 years and older) who are eligible at Government COVID Vaccination Centers (CVCs).

States and UTs have been urged to give an intensive and ambitious push toward full COVID-19 vaccination coverage by vaccinating all eligible beneficiaries and covering them with precaution dose. This was discussed in a virtual meeting on Thursday with State/UT Health Secretaries and NHM MDs, which was presided over by Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan.