India saw a single-day rise of 46,148 new coronavirus infections taking the total tally of COVID-19 cases to 3,02,79,331, while daily fatalities were recorded below 1000, taking the total death count to 3,96,730, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Monday.
India saw 979 fatalities due to COVID-19 in a day, the lowest in 76 days.
According to the data published at 7 am, the cumulative vaccine doses administered in the country has reached 32.36 crore under Nationwide Vaccination Drive.
"India achieves another milestone in COVID-19 vaccination and overtakes the USA in a total number of Covid vaccine doses administered," the ministry said.
The active cases declined to 5,72,994 comprising 1.89 per cent of the total infections, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate has improved to 96.80 per cent, the data updated at 8 am showed.
A net decline of 13,409 cases has been recorded in the COVID-19 caseload in a span of 24 hours.
Also, 15,70,515 tests were conducted on Sunday taking the total cumulative tests conducted so far for detection of COVID-19 in the country to 40,63,71,279.
Meanwhile, the pace of vaccination in the country is increasing with an average of over 60 lakh vaccinations taking place on a daily basis. But it faces the challenge of a gender gap: 54 per cent men have received the vaccine compared to 46 per cent women -- a gap of 8 per cent. In terms of population, India has only 5 per cent more men than women.
For some misinformation is a barrier. Saroj Gupta, 40, lives in a one-room accommodation at a slum in South-West Delhi's Munirka. Her husband works as a security guard and the couple have four children.
Here are the updates on coronavirus (COVID-19) cases:
The Durbar Mahila Samanwaya Committee, in association with Kolkata Municipal Corporation on Monday organised a vaccination camp for empowering sex workers at Sonagachi in Kolkata.
Bishakha Laskar, committee chief told ANI, "Vaccination is their only hope against COVID. Around 300 sex workers have been vaccinated."
"On Monday, vaccination program for sex workers in the age group of 18-60 has been conducted, in Sonagachi wherein around 300 sex workers were vaccinated against COVID-19. The drive will continue for the next two days. It was important for sex workers to have such a set-up where they could get themselves vaccinated as they come in contact with many people. Based on the list we have, we are getting all sex workers vaccinated and arranging vaccination for those who have documents and those who don't," Ms Laskar said.
With daily COVID-19 cases in the national capital showing a declining trend, the Delhi government on Monday asked private hospitals with 100 or more beds to scale down the number of oxygen beds reserved for Covid patients to 30 per cent of their total capacity.
For hospitals with less than 100 beds, the government left it to them whether they want to reserve any beds for Covid patients.
Altogether 34,066 children below the age of 18 years have tested positive for COVID-19 during the second wave of the pandemic in Assam, Director, National Health Mission of the state, Dr Lakshmanan S said on Monday.
This accounts for 12 per cent of the total cases reported since April this year.
A total of 5,755 cases are children below five years whereas 28,851 are between 6 and 18 years.
West Bengal's Covid-19 tally rose to 17,644 after 32 more people died due to the disease on Monday, the health department said in a bulletin.
The tally mounted to 14,96,710 after 1,761 new people tested positive for the disease, it added.
While North 24 Parganas district accounted for nine fatalities, seven deaths were registered in Kolkata.
Assam's coronavirus tally rose to 5,03,333 on Monday as 2,689 people tested positive for the infection while 42 new fatalities pushed the death toll to 4,482, the National Health Mission (NHM) bulletin said.
The new cases were detected out of testing of 1,33,543 samples on Monday and the positivity rate for the day was 2.01 per cent.
Maharashtra Minister Nawab Malik on Monday said out of the 21 people detected with the Delta plus variant of coronavirus so far in the state, only one had taken the first dose of COVID-19 vaccine.
Delayed second and third doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine boost immunity against COVID-19, a study by Oxford University, which developed the jab with the British-Swedish firm, said on Monday.
Over 51 per cent of Mumbai's general paediatric population - those below 18 - have antibodies for COVID-19, a sero survey of 2,176 blood samples conducted in the city between April 1 and June 15 has revealed.
The West Bengal government today decided to extend the lockdown till July 15, but announced several relaxations in curbs imposed to control the spike in COVID-19 cases amid the second wave.
Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan on Monday said it is ''historic'' that India has overtaken the United States of America in the total number of COVID-19 vaccines administered so far.
British holidaymakers heading to the Balearic Islands will need to show a negative PCR test or proof of vaccination due to a rise in UK Covid infections, Spain said Monday, reversing a free-entry policy, AFP reported.
Sri Lanka's cricket board on Monday initiated disciplinary action against three players, including vice-captain Kusal Mendis, after videos emerged appearing to show them breaching their bio-secure Covid bubble in England.
Mendis and Niroshan Dickwella were seen smoking in the streets of Durham, where they are based ahead of this week's first one-day international at Chester-le-Street on Tuesday, AFP reported.
Australia's COVID-19 response committee is due to hold an emergency meeting on Monday as outbreaks of the highly contagious Delta variant across the country prompted a lockdown in Sydney and renewed restrictions elsewhere.
More than 20 million Australians, or around 80% of the population, are now under some form of lockdown or COVID-related restrictions as officials grapple with COVID-19 flare-ups in almost every state or territory, reuters reported.
The country reported 119 deaths on Sunday, its highest-ever daily death count from the pandemic, while new infections have been averaging around 5,000 for the past few days, AFP reported.
As many as 32,36,63,297 doses have been administered in India since the vaccination drive started on January 16, ANI reported.
The number of cumulative cases in the state has mounted to 19,324.
A total of 33,704 new infections were detected, raising the total caseload to 18,420,598, the ministry said.
The Fortis Memorial Research Institute in Gurugram has started its pilot soft launch of the Russian COVID-19 vaccine ''Sputnik V'' and the hospital has procured the vaccine stock directly from Dr Reddy's Laboratories.
"The response to the pilot soft launch of the Sputnik V has been overwhelming at Fortis Memorial Research Institute, Gurugram. The vaccination launch was successfully driven in collaboration with Dr Reddy's Laboratories," said a statement issued by the Fortis Memorial Research Institute.
The Delta plus variant of COVID-19 has greater affinity to lung tissues as compared to other strains but it does not mean that it will cause severe disease or is more transmissible, head of coronavirus working group NTAGI Dr N K Arora said.
A new viral variant of the coronavirus, Delta Plus, was identified on June 11. It was recently classified as a variant of concern.
Till now, 51 cases of Delta Plus have been detected across 12 states, with Maharashtra reporting the maximum cases of this variant.