India logs 20,528 new COVID cases, 49 deaths

According to the Union Health Ministry and Family Welfare, India reported 20,528 new COVID-19 cases on Sunday whereas 20,044 cases were registered on Saturday. The Union Health Ministry of India has confirmed 17,790 recoveries pushing the total recoveries to 4,30,81,441 crore.

In the last 24 hours, India also reported 49 deaths taking the country’s toll to 5,25,709 lakh. At the same time, the active caseload stood at 1,43,449. Although on July 16, there were 1,40,760 active cases of COVID-19.

The active cases comprise 0.33 per cent of the total infections. Furthermore, the current recovery rate in the country stands at 98.47 per cent, the daily positivity rate at 5.23 per cent and the weekly positivity rate at 4.55 per cent.

The health ministry on Sunday said that as many as 3,92,659 tests were conducted on Saturday, taking the total cumulative tests undertaken so far in the country to 86.94 crores.

Meanwhile, the national capital, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra has seen a massive spike in COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours. Delhi reported 491 cases of COVID-19 on Saturday, and Tamil Nadu reported 2,340 new cases in the previous 24 hours. However, Maharashtra reported 2,389 new cases of COVID-19, whereas Mumbai saw 282 new COVID-19 cases.

Vaccination in India

Moreover, as of now, India has administered 1,99,98,89,097 crore vaccine doses, and for the age group 12-14 years, over 3,79,82,251 crore 1st dose vaccines have been administered. However, in the last 24 hours, 25,59,840 Covid-19 vaccines were administrated. Notably, the nationwide vaccination drive was started on January 16, 2021.

However, from Friday, the program of administering free precaution doses for the next 75 days to adult citizens across the country under Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav has started.

Earlier on Wednesday, the government of India has taken an important decision where people between the age of 18-59 in the country can get a booster dose or third dose of the COVID vaccine at government immunisation centres for free. As a part of Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav, the booster dose will be free for 75 days, starting from July 15.

New Sub-Variant of COVID-19 Detected in India

Earlier on July 6, the World Health Organization (WHO) confirmed new Covid-19 sub-variant BA.2.75 of the Omicron variant had been detected in India. In addition, BA.4 and BA.5 are driving waves in other countries like Europe and America.

“On Covid-19, globally reported cases have increased nearly 30 per cent over the last two weeks. Four out of six WHO sub-regions saw cases increase in the last week,” the news agency PTI quoted WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.