COVID-19: India reports 4,575 new cases; 145 more deaths
India on Wednesday reported over 4,500 new COVID-19 cases, a slight increase of over 500 cases from the previous day. The active caseload in the country currently stands at 46,962, which accounts for 0.11% of the total cases. In the past 24 hours, 4,575 new cases and 145 fatalities were reported. Meanwhile, India's COVID-19 recovery rate has reached 98.69%.
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India on Wednesday reported a marginally higher number of COVID-19 cases than the day before. However, both active caseload and weekly positivity rate continue to witness a steady decline. This comes after India witnessed a massive spurt in coronavirus infections in December-end and at the beginning of January. The spike in cases—dubbed India's third wave—has been attributed to the Omicron variant.
Over 7,000 patients discharged
According to data shared by the Union Health Ministry, India reported a total of 4,29,75,883 COVID-19 cases till Wednesday morning, while the cumulative death count reached 5,15,355. With 7,416 fresh discharges, the number of total recoveries in the country climbed to 4,24,13,566. The daily positivity rate and the weekly positivity rate were recorded at 0.51% and 0.62%, respectively.
Kerala adds most new cases
Maharashtra reported 460 new COVID-19 cases along with 718 more recoveries. Kerala, the second worst-hit state after Maharashtra, reported 2,846 new cases and 1,871 discharges. The third worst-hit Karnataka added 197 fresh cases and 258 recoveries. Tamil Nadu, the fourth worst-hit state, witnessed 151 new cases and 418 discharges. Meanwhile, Andhra Pradesh reported 69 new cases and 139 recoveries.
India's second wave peaked on May 7
India's second wave peaked on May 7, 2021, when 4.14 lakh single-day cases were reported, over four times the number of cases reported during the first wave in mid-September 2020. Although infections declined after the second wave peaked, India crossed the three-crore mark on June 23. The country crossed the one-crore mark on December 19, 2020, and the two-crore mark on May 4, 2021.
Over 179 crore vaccine doses administered
Till 10 am on Wednesday, India administered over 179.2 crore COVID-19 vaccine doses. Overall, over 80.5 crore people have been fully vaccinated, while more than 96.7 crore people have received one dose. On Wednesday alone, India administered over 96,000 COVID-19 vaccine doses till 10 am, including over 78,000 second doses and nearly 10,000 first doses, according to Co-WIN.
1.96 crore 'precautionary' doses administered
Meanwhile, India has administered over 1.96 crore "precautionary" doses since January 10. On Wednesday, nearly 3,000 healthcare/frontline workers and over 6,700 elderly people were given the precautionary dose till 10 am.
India to resume international flights from March 27
India on Tuesday lifted the ban on international flights after a gap of almost two years. The regular commercial international passenger flights will now be operating from March 27 onwards. So far, India was operating international flights to and from countries with whom it has air bubble arrangements. The air bubble arrangement also stand revoked, Civil Aviation minister Jyotiraditya Scindia announced.
