The average weekly Covid positivity rate in India is 0.99 per cent, the government said
Unvaccinated people account for 92 per cent of COVID-19 deaths in since January this year, the government said today.
"It is evident that vaccines and the wide vaccination coverage have played a very important role in protecting hundreds of lives. The vaccine has protected the nation from a surge in the number of Covid cases," Dr VK Paul, member (health) of the government's think tank NITI Aayog told reporters today.
The first dose of Covid vaccine is 98.9 per cent effective in fighting Covid, and if both doses are given, it is 99.3 per cent, Director General of the Indian Council for Medical Research Dr Balram Bhargava said.
The average weekly Covid positivity rate - or number of cases per 100 tests - in India is 0.99 per cent, while active cases are 77,000. In the last 24 hours, only 6,561 cases have been reported in India, the Health Ministry's Joint Secretary Luv Aggarwal said.
Covid deaths have seen a sharp fall in India, from 615 deaths on an average between February 2 and 8 to 144 last week, a decline of 76.60 per cent from the peak of what India has seen, Mr Aggarwal said.
Cases from Kerala, Maharashtra and Mizoram account for 50 per cent of all Covid cases in India. Only one state has over 10,000 active cases, while there are less than 5,000 active cases in other states, he said.
In the second wave last year, the peak came around the 49th day and cases started falling from the 68th day.
In the third wave this year, driven by the Omicron variant, the peak came in 18 days and cases began to fall after 24 days, the government said.
All students who came to India from conflict-hit Ukraine must get vaccinated immediately if not already done, the government said.