Amid rising numbers, India—since starting the vaccination drive in mid-January—has administered 36 million vaccine doses, which are mostly the AstraZeneca shots developed with Oxford University and locally known as Covishield.
“We have no signal of concern in this regard,” V.K. Paul, who heads a government committee on vaccines, told a news conference, adding that experts in India had looked into the issue. “Covishield vaccination in the country will go on with full rigour.”
Paul said as Covid infections had risen in the country since early February, hitting a three-month high on Wednesday, the government was looking at accelerating the vaccination drive that also uses a homegrown shot created by Bharat Biotech and the state-run Indian Council of Medical Research.
India on Wednesday reported 28,903 fresh Covid-19 cases, pushing the overall tally to 11,438,734. The death toll from the deadly infection jumped to 159,079. The five most affected states by total cases are Maharashtra, Kerala, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, and Tamil Nadu.
Maharashtra reported as many as 23,179 new cases of coronavirus, which is the highest single-day infection count so far in 2021. This is the sixth highest one-day spike of infection cases in the state since the pandemic began last year. With these new cases, Maharashtra’s overall infection count rose to 23,70,507. Maharashtra vaccinated 2,32,340 people against Covid-19, taking its tally to 33,65,952 since the drive started on January 16.
Delhi recorded 536 new coronavirus cases, the highest in about two-and-a-half months, while more persons died there. The number of active cases rose to 2,702 from 2,488 a day ago.
The 536 new cases took the infection tally to 6,45,025 and 6.31 lakh people have recovered so far. The positivity rate rose to 0.66 per cent. Three new fatalities took the toll to 10,948.
Among southern states, Karnataka reported over 1,275 new Covid-19 cases and four related fatalities, taking the caseload to 9.63 lakh and the toll to 12,407. The day also saw 479 patients getting discharged after recovery. Bengaluru, with 786 cases, continued to top the state in the number of infections.
Cumulatively, 9,63,614 Covid-19 positive cases have been confirmed in the state, which includes 12,407 deaths and 9,40,968 discharges.
Kerala reported 2,098 new coronavirus cases, 2,815 recoveries, and 13 deaths in the past 24 hours. The number of active cases now stands at 25,394; so far 10,66,259 patients have recovered from the disease.
Tamil Nadu reported 945 fresh Covid-19 positive cases, 576 discharges, and eight deaths in the last 24 hours.