12cr vaccine doses for states, UTs in June, a jump of 50%

India on Sunday registered 1.65 lakh new cases — its lowest count in 46 days. The active caseload has further dipped to 21.14 lakhs and the daily recoveries continue to outnumber the new cases for the 17th consecutive day. The country’s recovery rate has increased to 91.25 per cent and the daily positivity rate at 8.02 per cent continues the streak of less than 10 per cent positivity for six days running. Deaths, however, continue to be high — with 3,460 fatalities recorded in the last 24 hours.

The Centre on Sunday said that nearly 12 crore anti Covid-19 vaccine doses will be made available to the states and Union territories in June, which is 50 per cent more than what they got in May, to boost the nearly halted vaccination drive. However, out of these 12 crores, nearly half will be provided by the Centre directly while the rest will be available for direct procurement by the states/UTs and private hospitals.

The health ministry said states have been informed about the availability of vaccines for June and a delivery schedule will also be shared with them soon for better planning.

Several major cities like Delhi and Mumbai have started witnessing a significant dip in daily cases. Delhi on Sunday had 946 new cases and 78 deaths. The deaths in the national capital have dropped below 100 for the first time in 47 days. In Uttar Pradesh, meanwhile, curfew has been eased in 55 districts from 7 am to 7 pm which have fewer than 600 cases, while the curfew will continue in districts with more than 600 active cases for one more week.

The health ministry has said that the allocation of Central supplies to the states and UTs was decided on the consumption pattern, population and vaccine wastage. “Visibility for availability of vaccines for the entire month of June 2021