Almost 25% eligible population fully vaccinated in India
Muslim woman cremator transcends barriers
Almost one-fourth of the 94 crore eligible adults in India have been fully vaccinated with 24.87 crore people taking both doses of Covid vaccine, while another 40.92 crore are partially vaccinated with a single dose among the 87.67 crore vaccinations so far, 54.13 lakh of them administered in 24 hours till 7 am on Wednesday.
Daily infections at 18,870 remained below 20,000 for the second consecutive day while daily deaths shot up from 179 on Tuesday to 378, including 149 in Kerala, followed by 64 in Haryana and 60 in Maharashtra. The active cases further went down to 2,82,520, which is 0.84 per cent of the total 3,37,16451 infections in the country. India crossed the grim milestone of 2 cr on May 4 and 3 cr on June 23.
The country's cumulative death toll went up to 4,47,751 while 3,29,86,180 recovered from the deadly disease, 28,178 of them in the past 24 hours ending at 8 am.
The daily positivity rate fell to the lowest at 1.25 per cent, whereas the weekly positivity rate was at 1.82 per cent. As many as 56.75 crore people have been tested for the virus, 15.05 lakh of them in 24 hours.
Samples of bats from Kozhikode show Nipah antibodies
While lighting the tiny oil brass lamp every morning at the crematorium and waiting for the dead to arrive, Subeena Rahman never thinks of her religion.
The Muslim woman, in her late 20s, knows better than anyone now that death has no religion and everyone is alone and empty-handed during their final journey.
Working as a crematorium keeper at a Hindu crematorium in Irinjalakuda in this central Kerala district for the last three years, this young undergraduate said she has cremated hundreds of corpses, including those of over 250 Covid positive people so far.