India on Saturday reported 13,083 new coronavirus cases, taking the overall count to 1,07,33,131. The new cases were 30.6% lower than Friday’s count. The country’s toll rose by 137 to 1,54,147.
More than 1.04 crore people in the country have recovered from the infection, while the number of active cases stand at 1,69,824. India’s recovery rate is now 96.98%.
The total number of vaccinations in India crossed 35 lakh. The health ministry said that India was the fastest country to reach 30 lakh vaccinations in 13 days, taking the lead over the United States, Israel and United Kingdom.
On Friday, the Centre directed the states to begin vaccinating frontline workers from next week. The government said there were enough vaccines to inoculate health and frontline workers simultaneously.
The Karnataka government urged the Centre to consider teachers as frontline workers and give them priority in vaccination, PTI reported. The state’s Primary and Secondary Education Minister S Suresh Kumar said in a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan that teachers in the state had contributed to efforts to combat the coronavirus.
Meanwhile, Sri Lanka began rolling out vaccines on Friday, a day after receiving 5 lakh doses of Covishield from India, The Hindu reported.
Globally, the coronavirus has infected more than 10.2 crore people and killed over 22 lakh, according to John Hopkins University. Over 5.63crore people have recovered from the infection in the world.
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