India has logged in 1.86 lakh new covid-19 cases in the 24 hours, the lowest spike in daily infections in the last 44 days, the ministry of Health and Family Welfare said in its latest update. With 3,660 new fatalities, the death toll has now reached past 3.18 lakh. The country currently have 23.43 lakh cases, the ministry said.
After Friday’s additions, the overall nationwide tally now stands at 27,555,457, while the cumulative fatality toll stands at 315,235.
For the fifteenth consecutive day, the number of recoveries outnumbered the daily new cases as 259,459 people were recuperated from Covid-19 over the last 24 hours, the ministry said.
The Health Ministry said that a total of 20,57,20,660 people have been vaccinated so far in the country, including 29,19,699 who were administered vaccines in the last 24 hours.
According to the Indian Council of Medical Research, 33,90,39,861 samples have been tested up to May 27 for Covid-19. Of these 20,70,508 samples were tested on Thursday.
The Centre on Thursday released a new directory, adding that the second Covid-19 wave in India is now on the “downswing”. Even as the positivity rate is on decline, Centre stressed that states should maintain ongoing restrictions till June 30.
Here’s more updates:
*NITI Aayog member V K Paul on Friday said that Pfizer has assured of providing certain amount of its vaccine mRNA to India by July this year. He also added that the pharma’s request on indemnity is still under Centre’s consideration.
*Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra urges Centre to remove GST on all life-saving medicines and equipment being used in fight against COVID-19
* The Uttar Pradesh government is now planning to open more drive-in vaccination centres in the state, following the positive response to such a centre in Noida.
*Karnataka’s Covid tally crossed the 25-lakh mark, with 24,214 new cases in a day, while 476 succumbed to the infection, said the state health bulletin on Thursday.
*The Ministry of Information & Broadcasting approved financial assistance to 67 families of journalists who succumbed to covid-19 pandemic. Each family will receive Rs 5 lakh under the Journalist Welfare Scheme (JWS) of the ministry.
