COVID-19: India reports 949 new cases, 6 more deaths
What's the story
India on Friday reported nearly 950 new COVID-19 cases, a decline of about 60 cases from the previous day.
The country's active caseload currently stands at 11,191, which accounts for 0.03% of the total cases so far.
In the past 24 hours, a total of 949 new cases and six fatalities were reported.
Meanwhile, India's COVID-19 recovery rate stood at 98.76%.
Context
Why does this story matter?
On Friday, India reported fewer COVID-19 cases than Thursday.
The active caseload, on the other hand, witnessed a slight increase from Thursday.
Meanwhile, Delhi has been seeing an increase in COVID-19 cases in recent days, which raised concerns among the authorities.
Notably, in light of the declining number of daily COVID-19 cases, India has lifted almost all COVID-19-related restrictions from March 31, 2022.
Statistics
810 recoveries recorded in 24 hours
According to data shared by the Union Health and Family Welfare Ministry, India reported a total of 4,30,39,974 COVID-19 cases until Friday morning, while the cumulative death count reached 5,21,742.
With 810 fresh discharges, the number of total recoveries in the country climbed to 4,25,07,038.
On the other hand, the daily and weekly positivity rates were recorded at 0.26% and 0.25%, respectively.
States
Delhi adds most new cases
Maharashtra—one of the worst-hit states so far—reported 103 new COVID-19 cases, 77 more recoveries, and five deaths on Thursday.
Karnataka added 45 new cases and 54 recoveries, while Tamil Nadu witnessed 25 new cases and 23 discharges.
Delhi reported 325 new COVID-19 cases on Thursday and 224 recoveries. Meanwhile, the national capital has also been also witnessing a surge of cases in schools.
Trend
India's third wave peaked in January
Notably, India witnessed a massive spurt in coronavirus infections in December-end and at the beginning of January—dubbed India's third wave—due to the highly contagious Omicron variant.
The third wave peaked on January 21, 2022, when 3.47 lakh single-day cases were recorded.
However, this was lower compared to the second wave, when 4.14 lakh single-day infections were recorded at a peak on May 7, 2021.
Vaccination
Over 186.2 crore vaccine doses administered
As of Friday morning, India has administered over 186.22 crore COVID vaccine doses.
Overall, over 84.15 crore people have been fully vaccinated, while more than 99.69 crore people have received one dose of the vaccine.
On Friday alone, India administered over 1,07,200 COVID-19 vaccine doses till 11:00 am, including over 65,000 second doses and nearly 22,000 first doses, according to Co-WIN.
Data
2.37 crore precautionary doses administered
Moreover, India has administered over 2.37 crore "precautionary" doses since January 10. On Friday, over 10,000 people in the age group of 18-59 years and nearly 12,000 people aged over 60 years were given the precautionary dose till 11:00 am.
Current news
Global COVID-19 cases surpass 500 million
Meanwhile, the number of COVID-19 cases worldwide topped 500 million on Thursday.
The surge has been attributed to an increase in the cases of the highly infectious BA.2 sub-variant of Omicron in several countries.
The most affected countries are China, South Korea, and some European nations.
Notably, the BA.2 variant has been blamed for the recent, massive outbreaks in China as well as Europe.