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It took India 325 days to cross 1 crore cases. In the last 24 hours, 25,152 fresh infections took India's Covid tally to 1,00,04,599, the government data showed this morning. 347 deaths linked to Covid were recorded, taking tally to 1,45,136.
A dip in daily cases has helped the country's fight against Covid. Earlier this week, 22,065 new cases were reported in a day- lowest one-day figure in five months. "Recoveries are more than 30 times the active cases (currently only 3.14% of total cases)," the Union Health Ministry said this morning.
A "steep rise" has been observed in recoveries - from 50,000 in May to over 95 lakh in December, the Union Health Ministry tweeted this morning. "Central government's calibrated strategies through a 'Whole of Government' approach have sharply focussed on high Recovery Rate and low Fatality Rate on a sustained basis," the Health Ministry said in one of the tweets.
Across India, over 16 crore coronavirus tests have been conducted so far, the government data shows. The death rate stood at 1.45 per cent this morning, while the positivity rate stood at 2.14 per cent.
With 18.88 lakh cases, Maharashtra has logged the highest number of cases in the country followed by Karnataka (9.07 lakh), Andhra Pradesh (8.77 lakh), Tamil Nadu (8.04 lakh), Kerala (6.93 lakh) and Delhi (6.14 lakh).
The government on Wednesday said Covid vaccines will be voluntary while underlining that the vaccine introduced in India will be as effective as any vaccine developed by other countries. The government is geared to launch a vaccine for COVID-19 soon, the Health Ministry said.
Six vaccines, including those developed by Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech and Pune-based Serum Institute of India - are undergoing clinical trials in India.
India has enough capacity to produce COVID-19 vaccines for its needs and also export it to other countries that need its help, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Friday.
The United States on Friday cleared Moderna vaccine for emergency use.
In India, three vaccine makers - Pfizer, Bharat Biotech and Serum Institute of India - have sought emergency approval from the drug controller.
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