New Delhi: India recorded 10,549 fresh infections in the past 24 hours. The recovery rate at 98.33 per cent accounted for 9,868 recuperations in the last 24 hours taking the total recoveries to 3,39,77,830. The daily positivity rate stood at 0.89 per cent, less than 2 per cent for 53 consecutive days.
The number of active cases stood at 1,10,133 accounting for 0.32 per cent of the total number of cases. The active cases reported a rise of 193 in the last 24 hours. However, the mortality rate recorded at 1.35 per cent reported a spike in deaths recording 488 fatalities, taking the cumulative death toll to 4,67,468.
The centre on Thursday, directed health authorities of all state to hold strict screening on international arrivals from risk countries South Africa, Hong Kong and Botswana. This decision came after South Africa detected a new variant of COVID-19.
World Health Organization officials met on Thursday to discuss on the mutation circulating in South Africa and Botswana. The new variant, called B.1.1529, carries an unusually large number of mutations, Francois Balloux, director of the UCL Genetics Institute, said in a statement. So far 22 cases of the mutation have been detected in South Africa. The mutation is likely to have evolved during a chronic infection of an immuno-compromised person, possibly in an untreated HIV/AIDS patient, suspects Mr.Francois.
As per the statistics reported to Ministry of Family Health and Welfare, so far 120.27 crore COVID-19 vaccine doses have been administered in the country , including 83.88 lakh doses given in the last 24 hours.