India recorded 34,403 fresh coronavirus cases in the last 24 hours, 12.5 per cent higher than yesterday. The active cases account for 1.02 per cent of the overall cases in the country (3,33,47,325) recorded since the start of the pandemic.
Here is your ten-point cheat sheet on this big story:
The government is eyeing a single-day vaccination record today to mark the 71st birthday of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. India has given over 1 crore doses of vaccines in a single day at least four times so far.
Over 1 billion doses have been administered so far in the WHO-linked South East Asian countries, the global body said, adding that over 76 crore doses have been given in India.
According to the Health Ministry, India accounts for more than 25 per cent of average daily doses given worldwide. While India's average daily dose count stands at 8.83 million, it is 25.5 million for the rest of the world, as per the data shared by the government.
The government on Thursday said only one state - Kerala - has more than one lakh active cases, and only Maharashtra has over 50,000 active cases.
Warning against laxity, the Health Ministry insisted on extra caution for the upcoming festival season. "Covid safe festivities this year will be a determining factor in our fight against the pandemic," Covid task force's Dr VK Paul said.
The daily positivity rate, which stood at 2.25 per cent this morning, has been less than 3 per cent for the last 18 days.
The weekly positivity rate, which currently stands at 1.97 per cent, has been less than 3 per cent for the last 84 days.
In the last 24 hours, Kerala recorded 17,681 fresh Covid cases, and Maharashtra reported 3,783 new cases. While Maharashtra has the highest overall cases, the surge in Kerala has been a cause of national worry.
Worldwide, over 22.63 crore total infections have been reported so far; over 46.5 lakh people have died.
The US (4,15,36,395), Brazil (2,10,34,610), United Kingdom (73,46,832), and Russia make the list of five countries in the world with the highest cases in the world apart from India.
