India Records 43,071 New Covid Cases In 24 Hours, 955 Deaths

Active Covid cases have declined to 4.85 lakh in India - the number is below 5 lakh after 97 days. Active cases constitute 1.59 per cent of total infections.

Over 52,000 patients recovered in the last 24 hours taking total recoveries so far to over 2.96 crore. Daily recoveries continue to outnumber the new infections for the 52nd consecutive day.

The recovery rate has now increased to 97.09 per cent. The daily positivity rate is at 2.34 per cent - less than 5 per cent for 27 straight days. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has declared Covid positivity rate below 5 per cent to be within the safe zone.

Over 63.87 lakh vaccine doses were administered in the last 24 hours. The total doses administered in the country has exceeded 35.12 crore so far, the health ministry said.

Over eight lakh vaccine doses were administered on Saturday in worst-affected Maharashtra till 9 pm, the highest in a single day so far in the state, Shiv Sena leader Aaditya Thackeray tweeted. Maharashtra is the first state in the country to cross the three crore mark in vaccinating people.

States have been easing restrictions in phases as Covid cases drop with Karnataka announcing the lifting of weekend curfew starting tomorrow. The night curfew will continue to be in place from 9 pm to 5 am across the state, a government order said.

Pregnant women can now register on the CoWIN platform or visit vaccination centres for COVID-19 shots, the government said on Friday, adding that it had shared rules and procedures with states to roll out the programme.

Bharat Biotech's Covaxin is overall 77.8 per cent effective "against symptomatic COVID-19", the vaccine maker said in a statement on Saturday, citing the data from the third phase of clinical trials. The data, however, is yet to be peer-reviewed. The vaccine offers "65.2 per cent protection against" the new Delta variant, said to be highly infectious, it said.

While India is seeing a downward curve in Covid cases, reports of Delta Plus variant in at least 12 states has led to fresh concerns among health officials. Delta strain was classified as a "variant of concern" by the government last month as it warned states to be on guard.

The third wave of coronavirus could hit the peak between October-November if Covid appropriate behaviour is not followed, but may see half the daily cases recorded during the second surge, a scientist of a government panel tasked with modelling of COVID-19 cases has said.