Delhi on Tuesday reported 3,028 fresh coronavirus cases in the last 24 hours while the positivity rate in the national capital was below five per cent for the first time in a month.
Meanwhile, Mumbai today reported 1,128 new cases, a jump of 40 per cent from yesterday's number (803).
The positivity rate in the financial capital increased to 2.44% from yesterday's 1.55%. The city reported 10 deaths & 8,158 active patients and conducted 46,073 tests in the last 24 hours.
India on Tuesday reported 1,61,386 new COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours, bringing the total infection tally in the country to 4,16,30,885. The new Covid related cases were three per cent lower than yesterday's 1.67 lakh daily spike.
The country also recorded a whopping 1,733 new deaths in 24 hours, as Kerala added a backlog of 1,063 fatalities to today's count.
According to the Health Ministry, the Covid positivity rate dropped to 9.26 per cent from yesterday's 11.6 per cent, while the weekly positivity rate was recorded at 14.15 per cent. India's active caseload currently stands at 16.21 lakh cases.
In the ongoing Covid vaccination drive across the country, over 75 per cent of the country's adult population is now fully vaccinated.
Here are the Highlights on coronavirus cases in India:
Delhi reported 3,028 fresh coronavirus cases and 27 related deaths in a day, while the positivity rate declined to 4.73 per cent, according to data shared by the city government's health department on Wednesday.
With this, the national capital's case count increased to 18,35,979 and the death count climbed to 25,919, the latest health bulletin stated.
The number of COVID-19 tests conducted a day ago stood at 63,982, it said.
Delhi on Tuesday reported 2,683 fresh COVID-19 cases with a positivity rate of 5.09 per cent, while 27 more people died due to the viral disease.
Maharashtra on Wednesday reported 18,067 new coronavirus infections including 113 Omicron cases and 79 pandemic-related deaths, the state health department said.
The COVID-19 caseload in the state rose to 77,53,548 and death toll to 1,42,784.
The state had reported 14,372 cases and 94 fatalities on Tuesday.
India's COVID-19 vaccination coverage has crossed 167.80 crore with over 48 lakh vaccine doses being administered on Wednesday, the Union Health Ministry said.
The daily vaccination tally is expected to increase with the compilation of the final reports for the day by late in the night, it said.
Cumulatively, 54,26,95,642 first doses of COVID-19 vaccine have been administered to individuals in the 18-44 age group and 41,02,25,658 second doses have been given in the same age group since the start of phase three of the vaccination drive.
Seventeen more Covid-related deaths were reported in Haryana on Wednesday, taking the death toll to 10,337, while 3,267 fresh cases pushed the infection count to 9,55,693, according to a Health Department bulletin.
Gurgaon district reported 970 fresh cases while Faridabad, Hisar and Sonipat reported 307, 269 and 192 cases, respectively, it said. The fatalities include four from Gurgaon and two each from Hisar, Karnal, Yamunanagar, Mahendergarh and Fatehabad districts, according to the bulletin. While Haryana has witnessed a significant decline in coronavirus cases over the past few days, there has been no drastic change in the fatality count.
Israel, one of the first nations to implement a vaccine pass, is to curtail its use in most places, authorities said Wednesday, despite tens of thousands of daily coronavirus infections, reported AFP.
The government's coronavirus task force decided only "high-risk" events such as parties will require a "green pass" that certifies a person has been vaccinated or recovered from the virus, according to an announcement released by Prime Minister Naftali Bennett's government.
The new rules are to take effect Sunday, pending approval from a parliamentary committee.
Facilities that have typically demanded proof of vaccination -- including restaurants, bars, gyms and hotels -- will likely drop the requirement if the measures are passed.
Tripura recorded 90 fresh COVID-19 cases on Wednesday, lower than the previous day's count, while the death count rose to 910 with eight more fatalities, a health bulletin said.
The state had registered 143 new infections and six deaths on Tuesday. Its coronavirus tally stood at 100,454.
Noting that timely completion of the Covid vaccination schedule is important to confer full protection of vaccines to the recipients, the Centre has asked the states and Union Territories to review the coverage of second dose amongst adolescents daily.
In a letter to the states and UTs, Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan said a tailored communication strategy, focused at adolescent population and their caregivers, should also be rolled out to make them aware about the timely completion of vaccination schedule and sustain their vaccine confidence.
"I hereby request you to direct the concerned officials to accelerate the 2nd dose coverage amongst due beneficiaries aged 15-18 years while also ensuring that remaining beneficiaries for 1 dose also receive it in a time-bound manner," Mr Bhushan said.
France on Wednesday loosened several of the restrictions imposed to curb the latest Covid surge, with authorities hoping a recent decline in daily cases will soon ease pressure on overburdened hospitals, reported AFP.
The move has divided experts after authorities reported record coronavirus infections just last month, with critics accusing the government of making a hasty bet on a return to normality.
But President Emmanuel Macron is betting that widespread vaccinations will curb the pandemic, with proof of inoculation now required for the health pass used to access everything from bars and restaurants to cinemas and long-distance public transport.
The government says more than 90 percent of adults are vaccinated, and booster shots or proof of recovery from Covid will be required to retain the new health pass -- a recent negative test result is no longer accepted.
The world's first human challenge trial in which volunteers were deliberately exposed to COVID-19 to advance research into the disease was found to be safe in healthy young adults, one of the companies running the study said on Wednesday. Read more here.
Pharmaceutical company Zydus on Wednesday announced that it has started the supplies of its COVID-19 vaccine ZyCoV-D to the Government of India against their order from its newly commissioned state-of-the-art Zydus Vaccine Technology Excellence Centre at the Zydus Biotech Park in Changodar, Ahmedabad.
The company is also planning to make the vaccine available in the private market.
The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Tuesday requested States and Union Territories to direct concerned officials to accelerate the second dose coverage amongst due beneficiaries aged 15-18 years while ensuring that remaining beneficiaries for the first dose also receive it in a time-bound manner.
Arunachal Pradesh reported more recoveries than new COVID-19 cases on Wednesday as 583 people were cured in the last 24 hours, a Health Department official said.
The state reported 246 new cases, taking the tally to 62,656, he said.
The total deaths rose to 288 after a Covid patient died on Tuesday. Arunachal Pradesh at present has 2,497 active cases.
India recorded 1.61 lakh fresh Covid cases, 3% lower than yesterday's 1.67 lakh daily cases. The Covid positivity rate dropped to under 10%. The active cases in the country now stand at 16.21 lakh, comprising 3.9% of total infections.
Thane reported 683 fresh Covid cases on Tuesday, raising the infection count in the Maharashtra district to 7,03,250, while 10 more fatalities pushed the total death count to 11,795, an official said today.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson will probably hold onto his job for now despite a scathing report about government coronavirus lockdown parties, but his long-term future is out of his hands as police probe claims of rule breaking, analysts said on Tuesday.
His position has been hanging by a thread because of the steady drip of revelations since late last year, leading to an increasingly mutinous mood among his MPs.
A subvariant of the highly contagious Omicron coronavirus strain, which some studies indicate could be even more infectious than the original version, has been detected in 57 countries, the WHO said Tuesday.
In its weekly epidemiological update, the World Health Organization said that the variant, which accounts for over 93 percent of all coronavirus specimens collected in the past month, counts several sub-lineages: BA.1, BA.1.1, BA.2 and BA.3. Several recent studies have hinted that BA.2 is more infectious than the original Omicron.
Pfizer and BioNTech will soon ask US regulators for emergency authorization for a Covid-19 vaccine for children aged five and under, US media reported Tuesday.
As early as Tuesday, the companies could seek emergency authorization for a two-dose vaccination regimen for children under five and as young as six months, The New York Times and other news outlets said.
Mumbai today lifted Covid restrictions which allows people to go back to parks, gardens, spas and yes, even the beaches.
