India Reports 60,753 New Covid Cases, 1,647 Deaths In 24 Hours

The daily positivity rate stands at 2.98 per cent – the 12th consecutive day it has remained below 5 per cent. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has declared Covid positivity rate below 5 per cent to be within the safe zone.

The total number of active cases in the country is at 7,60,019. Over 2.86 crore patients have recovered since the beginning of the pandemic.

Maharashtra leads the states with the highest number of infections. It is followed by Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh.

AIIMS chief Dr Randeep Guleria told NDTV that a third Covid wave in India is "inevitable", and it may hit the country in the next six to eight weeks, amid unlocking in various states after weeks of strict restrictions.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday launched six crash course programmes to train and upskill around one lakh frontline workers to help fight the pandemic.

Over 27 crore vaccine doses have been administered so far under the nationwide vaccination drive.

Studies have shown that following vaccination, the chances of hospitalisation reduce by 75-80 per cent even after contracting Covid and oxygen requirement comes down to 8 per cent, the government has said.

A sharp decline of 81 per cent has been noted in weekly case positivity rate. There are 513 districts with COVID-19 positivity rate less than 5 per cent, the Centre has said.

Around 20 states and Union Territories have below 5,000 active cases, showing a massive reduction in cases recently.

Restrictions are being eased gradually across the country amid the dip in cases. The Railways has added 660 more trains this month to facilitate the movement of migrant labourers and clear the waiting list in various origin-destination clusters, it said in a statement.