New Delhi: India has recorded 15,968 new cases of coronavirus infections in the last 24 hours. The country continued its streak of low cases, with the new tally mounting to 1,04,95,147, officials said on Wednesday.
In the last 24-hour, 202 deaths were reported in the past 24 hours taking the death toll to 1,51,529. Since the last 19 days, less than 300 new deaths per day have been recorded in the country.
On Tuesday, India had recorded 12,584 new cases, its lowest single-day figure in over seven months. Before this, the lowest number was recorded on June 18 last year, when India reported 12,881 fresh Covid cases in a day.
As per the Ministry data, till now, 1,01,29,111 people have recovered. Currently, there are 2,14,507 active cases. About 43.96 per cent of patients with active infection are in healthcare facilities, while the rest are in home isolation. The recovery rate in the country stands at 96.51 per cent while the fatality rate is 1.44 as per cent.
The total number of samples tested up to January 12 were 18,34,89,114. Of these 8,36,227 samples tested on Tuesday, the Indian Council of Medical Research said.
India's most-awaited mass vaccination drive is slated to begin from January 16, with approval of two vaccines -- Covishield by Serum Institute of India and Covaxin by Bharat Biotech. The Central government plans to vaccinate nearly three crore people in the first phase of the drive.
The vaccine will be offered to one crore healthcare workers, along with two crore frontline and essential workers, 26 crore people above the age of 50 and one crore below 50 with comorbidities.
India on Tuesday begun transportation of covid vaccines covishield and Covaxin. The first consignment of Covaxin developed by Bharat Biotech has brought from Hyderabad to Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi on an Air India flight this morning.
Meanwhile, the overall global coronavirus caseload has topped 91 million, while the deaths have surged to more than 1.96 million, according to the Johns Hopkins University.
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