India fastest to vaccinate 4mn against Covid: Govt
Eight states and UTS have weekly positivity rate higher than the national average
NEW DELHI: India has become the fastest country in the world to reach the 4 million Covid-19 vaccination mark, achieving this feat in 18 days, the Union ministry of health and family welfare said on Wednesday.
More than 41 lakh beneficiaries have been administered the vaccine shots as part of the countrywide exercise till Wednesday morning.
“As on Febru ary 1, India was among the top five countries in terms of number of Covid-19 vaccine doses administered to people. India continues to undertake its vaccination drive at a fast pace,” the ministry highlighted.
The country’s fight against the virus is bringing daily successes on other fronts as well, it said.
Fourteen states and Union Territories have not reported any deaths in a span of 24 hours, including Arunachal Pradesh, Tripura, Mizoram, Nagaland, Lakshadweep, Ladakh (UT), Sikkim, Manipur, Puducherry, Goa, Odisha and Assam. With a high number of recoveries everyday and the sustained drop in the mortality rate, India’s steady trend of registering dipping active cases continues, the ministry added.
The number of active cases in the country have declined further to 160,057 and dipped below 1.5 per cent of total infections. A total of 11,039 fresh confirmed cases were recorded in a span of 24 hours in the country, the lowest in seven months, the ministry said.
Besides, 14,225 new recoveries were registered in the same period. It has led to a net decline of 3,296 cases from the total active caseload, the ministry underlined.
The total number of recoveries have surged to 10,462,631. The National Recovery rate (97.08%) continues to be one of the highest globally, the ministry underscored.
“The gap between active cases and recovered cases is continuously increasing and stands at 10,302,574,” the ministry said. It added that 31 states and UTS have less than 5,000 active cases.
Eight states and UTS have weekly positivity rate higher than the national average (1.91 per cent). Kerala has the highest weekly positivity rate of 12 per cent, followed by Chhattisgarh with 7 per cent, the ministry said.
Till
Wednesday, 4,138,918 beneficiaries have received the vaccination under the countrywide exercise. As many as 188,762 healthcare workers were vaccinated across 3,845 sessions within a span of 24 hours.
A total of 76,576 sessions have been conducted so far. The number of beneficiaries being vaccinated every day has shown a progressive increase, the ministry stated.
Over 85 per cent of the newlyrecovered cases were recorded in eight states/uts. Kerala has contributed the highest number to the newly recovered cases (5,747), followed by Maharashtra(4,011) and Tamil Nadu (521).
The ministry also said that 83.01 per cent of the new cases are from six states and UTS. Kerala has reported the highest daily new cases at 5,716. It is followed by Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu with 1,927 and 510 new cases each, respectively.
A total of 110 deaths have been reported in a span of 24 hours. Five states and UTS account for 66.36 per cent of these. Maharashtra reported maximum casualties with 30 new fatalities.
Meanwhile, the Southern Railways is considering resuming all facilities for the travelling public, news agency PTI reported. General manager of Southern Railway John Thomas said the demand for general (unreserved) compartments in all the running trains was under consideration and that there would be an announcement in this regard soon.
At present, passengers trains were being run with reserved coaches in view of the Covid-19 pandemic.