Here are the top 10 updates on coronavirus in India:
Of the 501 deaths, 419 were reported from Kerala alone. The state added 47 deaths to its tally after they were designated as Covid deaths. The southern state has also contributed 7,224 fresh infections to the country's daily numbers.
Maharashtra reported 997 infections in the last 24 hours, as per the Union Health Ministry data. As many as 28 people died in the state during the day, while 1,016 patients were discharged from hospitals in the last 24 hours and a total number of 64,64,948 patients discharged so far.
The positivity rate in Delhi stands at 0.08 per cent with the national capital reporting 40 fresh cases during the period. Delhi has not reported any virus-related death so far this month. It reported four COVID-19 deaths in October and five in September.
Currently, the active coronavirus cases in India account for 0.40 per cent of total infections, which is the lowest since March 2020 days. The country's caseload of 1,37,416 is the lowest in 267 days.
The daily positivity rate - the number of positive cases identified per 100 - stands at 1.07 per cent. India has been reporting a daily positivity rate of less than two per cent for the last 39 days.
Meanwhile, Covaxin, the coronavirus vaccine developed by the government's medical research agency and Bharat Biotech, was found to have a 77.8 per cent efficacy rate against symptomatic COVID-19 in a long-awaited analysis published in The Lancet. The study also found it to be 65.2 per cent effective against the more dangerous Delta variant of the coronavirus in its preliminary analysis but said further investigations are necessary to confirm it.
People will need booster doses of the COVID-19 vaccine would be required if the COVID-19 virus gets mutated, Dr Krishna Ella, Chairman and Managing Director of Bharat Biotech, said Thursday. "What type of booster would be needed and how do we deliver it on a fast track basis. On that, we are working on various strategies that can be contained. Even if something comes up; we know how to handle situations," he was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.
110.79 crore vaccine doses have been administered so far under Nationwide Vaccination Drive, according to the data published by the Health Ministry at 8 am. Twelve crore beneficiaries are due for their second dose of COVID-19 vaccine.
India's COVID-19 tally had crossed the 20-lakh mark on August 7, 2020, 30 lakh on August 23, 40 lakh on September 5 and 50 lakh on September 16. It went past 60 lakh on September 28, 70 lakh on October 11, crossed 80 lakh on October 29, 90 lakh on November 20 and surpassed the one-crore mark on December 19. India crossed the grim milestone of two crore on May 4 and three crore on June 23.
Five million people have died worldwide from COVID-19 since the disease first emerged in China nearly two years ago, according to a tally from official sources compiled by AFP.
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