India on Saturday registered 38,667 new Covid-19 cases, taking the cumulative tally to 3,21,56,493 since the pandemic broke out in January last year. The new cases were 3.6% lower than Friday’s count of 40,120.
The country’s toll rose to 4,30,732 as it recorded 478 deaths in the last day. The number of active cases in India – 3,87,673 – comprise 1.21% of the total cases. The tally of recoveries in India stood at 3,13,38,088. The recovery rate was 97.45%.
More than 53 crore vaccine doses have been administered in India since the beginning of the inoculation drive on January 16, according to data from the Union health ministry.
India has approved five vaccines for emergency use so far – Serum Institute’s Covishield, Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin, Russia’s Sputnik V, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson’s single-dose shot. For now, only Covishield and Covaxin are being used in India’s vaccination programme.
On Friday, biotechnology company Bharat Biotech received the Drugs Controller General of India’s approval to conduct phase 2 clinical trials of its nasal vaccine against Covid-19. The intranasal vaccine is the first of its kind to receive the approval in India.
Meanwhile, the Maharashtra government said that five patients infected with the Delta plus variant of Covid-19 had died in the state so far, PTI reported. In all, 66 cases of the variant have been reported from Maharashtra. Some of the patients are fully vaccinated.
Globally, Covid-19 has infected more than 20 crore people and led to over 43 lakh deaths since the beginning of the pandemic in December 2019, according to Johns Hopkins University.
Limited-time offer: Big stories, small price. Keep independent media alive. Become a Scroll member today!
Our journalism is for everyone. But you can get special privileges by buying an annual Scroll Membership. Sign up today!