India will start vaccinating children aged 12 to 14 years from March 16 as it expands its COVID-19 vaccination coverage, the government said today. The condition of co-morbidity for people aged 60 and above to get a precautionary dose has also been removed. Everyone in that age category can now take booster shots.
India saw a further dip in daily COVID-19 cases as 2,503 new infections were recorded, the lowest since May, 2020, while the active cases dipped to 36,168, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Monday.
With the fresh cases, the total tally of COVID-19 cases rose to 4,29,93,494.
The death count climbed to 5,15,877 with 27 fresh fatalities, the data updated at 8 am stated.
The active cases comprise 0.08 per cent of the total infections, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate further improved to 98.72 per cent, the ministry said.
A reduction of 1,901 cases has been recorded in the active COVID-19 caseload in a span of 24 hours. The number of cases is the lowest since May 4, 2020.