India Receives Its First COVID-19 Vaccine for Children above 12 Years

New Delhi: India recorded 34,457 fresh infections in the past 24 hours, the Union Health Ministry reported. The recovery rate at 97.54 per cent accounted for 36,347 recuperations in the last 24 hours taking the total recoveries to 3,15,97,982. The daily positivity rate stood at 2.00 per cent, less than 3 per cent for the 26th consecutive day.

The number of active cases stands at 3,61,340  accounting for 1.12  per cent of the total number of cases. The active cases declined by 2265 in the last 24 hours. However, the mortality rate recorded at 1.34 per cent reported 375 fatalities, taking the cumulative death toll to 4,33,964.

India’s drug regulator on Friday approved Zydus Cadila’s three-dose needle-free DNA based vaccine for emergency use in adults and children above 12 years, bringing in the second indigenously made vaccine into use.

So far, 57.61 crore beneficiaries have been immunized under the nationwide vaccination drive. In the past 24 hours, 36.36 lakh citizens were immunized. Nearly, 44,73,03,462 beneficiaries were administered the first dose while 12,88,13,888 individuals were administered so far.

COVID patients are dying in U.S. hospitals at levels not seen since February, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said, warning that the numbers could worsen as intensive-care units overflow in parts of the South. According to WHO, there have been 209,876,613 COVID-19 cases including 4,400,284 deaths.