Covid update: India reports lowest number of cases in over a month; death toll nears 3,00,000-mark
As many as 2,40,842 more people tested positive for Covid-19 in the last 24 hours, taking the cumulative caseload to 2,65,30,132, said the Union health ministry on Sunday.
This is the least number of cases that the country has seen since 16 April and the seventh day when less than three lakh cases have been reported.
With fresh cases seeing a steady decline, Niti Aayog member (health) VK Paul said on Saturday that the Covid-19 situation “is stabilising in a major part of the country” with the positivity rate and active cases going down.
In addition to this, the number of fatalities also decreased in the last 24 hours as compared to the day before, with 3,741 more people succumbing to the disease. With this, the cumulative death toll in the country has reached 2,99,266.
Further, the recoveries surpassed the fresh cases in the country for the tenth straight day as 3,55,102 more people have been discharged. The number of total discharges now stands at 2,34,25,467.
As a result, the active cases in the country dipped by over a lakh in the last 24 hours, to stand at 28,05,399. The number stood at 29,23,400 on Saturday.
Tests conducted so far
India has tested 32,86,07,937 samples for Covid-19 until now, according to the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).
Out of these, a record 21,23,782 samples were tested on Saturday. This is the most number of tests conducted in the country in a 24-hour span.
Union health minister Harsh Vardhan had recently said that the government is aiming to ramp up testing to 25 lakh per day.
Vaccination in India
The country has so far administered 19,50,04,184 anti-Covid jabs. Out of these, 16,04,542 shots were given in the last 24 hours.
The central government has announced that family members and dependents of workers can also be covered under the Covid-19 vaccination drive at industrial and workplace inoculation centres.
In a letter to all chief secretaries, the Health Ministry said that for industrial and private workplace CVCs (Covid-19 vaccination centres), the vaccine doses will have to be procured by the private hospitals with whom the respective employer ties up.