44,111 New Covid Infections In India, Active Cases Below 5 Lakh

Active Covid cases have declined to 4.95 lakh in India - the number is below 5 lakh after 97 days. Active cases constitute 1.62 per cent of total infections.

Over 54,000 patients recovered in the last 24 hours taking total recoveries so far to over 2.96 crore. Daily recoveries continue to outnumber the new infections for the 51st consecutive day.

The recovery rate has now increased to 97.06 per cent. The daily positivity rate is at 2.35 per cent - less than 5 per cent for 26 straight days. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has declared Covid positivity rate below 5 per cent to be within the safe zone.

Almost 44 lakh vaccine doses were administered in the last 24 hours. The total doses administered in the country has exceeded 34.46 crore so far, the health ministry said.

Pregnant women can now register on the CoWIN platform or visit vaccination centres for COVID-19 shots, the government said on Friday, adding that it had shared rules and procedures with states to roll out the programme.

Until as recently as last month lactating women were eligible for the vaccine but pregnant women were not; the government had said this was due to a lack of safety and efficacy data since clinical trials for vaccines do not typically include pregnant women as participants.

Bharat Biotech's Covaxin is overall 77.8 per cent effective "against symptomatic COVID-19", the vaccine maker said in a statement today, citing the data from the third phase of clinical trials. The data, however, is yet to be peer-reviewed. The vaccine offers "65.2 per cent protection against" the new Delta variant, said to be highly infectious, it said.

Johnson & Johnson has also said that its single-shot coronavirus vaccine was effective against the fast-spreading Delta variant. The company said in a statement that recipients of its vaccine neutralised the Delta variant within 29 days of a first dose.

While India is seeing a downward curve in Covid cases, reports of Delta Plus variant in at least 12 states has led to fresh concerns among health officials. Delta strain was classified as a "variant of concern" by the government last month as it warned states to be on guard.

Ahead of a third wave - which experts say is more than likely, particularly given the mutation of the virus - the government has been urged to increase the pace of vaccination and widen the vaccine net.