New Delhi: India recorded 16,561 fresh infections in the past 24 hours. The recovery rate at 98.53 per cent accounted for 18,053 recuperations in the last 24 hours taking the total recoveries to 4,35,73,094.

The daily positivity rate stood at 5.44 per cent. The number of active cases stood at 1,23,535 accounting for 0.28 per cent of the total number of cases. The active cases reported a drop of 6,792 in the last 24 hours.

However, the mortality rate stood at 1.19 per cent recorded 49 fatalities taking the cumulative death toll to 5,26,928. The 40 new fatalities include six each from Delhi and Karnataka, five from Maharashtra, four from West Bengal, three each from Punjab and Uttar Pradesh, two each from Gujarat, Sikkim and Uttarakhand, and one each from Assam, Chandigarh, Jammu and Kashmir, Jharkhand, Manipur and Odisha. Remaining ten were reconciled deaths added from Kerala.

With the administration of 17,72,441 vaccine doses in the last 24 hours, India’s COVID-19 vaccination coverage has exceeded 207.47crore according to Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

Centre approved Biological Es Corbevax as a heterologous COVID-19 booster dose under emergency use authorization for individuals aged 18 years and above after 6 months of administration of primary vaccination (two doses) of Covaxin or Covishield.

The vaccine is available as a booster dose on the CoWIN App in public and private vaccination centres from August 12, 2022. The price of Corbevax for private COVID-19 vaccination centres is Rs. 250, inclusive of GST. For the end-user, the price was fixed at Rs 400, including taxes and administrative charges.