Posted On: 18 AUGUST 2021, Delhi

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PRESS INFORMATION BUREAU

MINISTRY OF INFORMATION & BROADCASTING

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA

COVID-19 Update

India’s Cumulative COVID-19 Vaccination Coverage crossed 56 Crore landmark

Recovery Rate (97.52%) at its highest since March 2020

35,178 Daily New Cases reported in last 24 hours

India’s Active Caseload (3,67,415) lowest in 148 days

Active cases constitute 1.14% of total cases; lowest ever since March 2020

Daily Positivity Rate (1.96%) less than 3% for last 23 days

India’s COVID-19 vaccination coverage crossed 56 Cr landmark yesterday. Cumulatively, 56,06,52,030 vaccine doses have been administered through 62,67,149 sessions, as per the provisional report till 7 am today. 55,05,075 vaccine doses were administered in the last 24 hours.These include:

The new phase of universalization of COVID-19 vaccination has commenced from 21st June, 2021. The Union Government is committed to accelerating the pace and expanding the scope of COVID-19 vaccination throughout the country.

India’s recovery rate stands at 97.52%, this is highest since March 2020.Out of the people infected since the beginning of the pandemic, 3,14,85,923 people have already recovered from COVID-19 and 37,169 patients have recovered in the last 24 hours.

India has reported 35,178 daily new cases in the last 24 hours.

Less than 50,000 Daily New Cases have been reported since fifty-two consecutive days. This is a result of sustained and collaborative efforts by the Centre and the States/UTs.

India’s Active Caseload at 3,67,415 is lowest in 148 days. Active cases now constitute only 1.14% of the country’s total Positive Cases which is lowest since March 2020.

With substantially ramped up testing capacity across the country, a total of 17,97,559 tests were conducted in the last 24 hours in the country. Cumulatively, India has conducted over 49.84 crore (49,84,27,083) tests so far.

While on one side testing capacity has been enhanced across the country, Weekly Positivity Rate at 1.95% remains less than 3% for last 54 days now. The Daily Positivity rate also stands at 1.96%. Daily Positivity rate has remained below 3% for last 23 days and below 5% for 72 consecutive days now.

Details: https://pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=1746841

COVID-19 Vaccination Update

More than 57.88 Crore vaccine doses provided to States/UTs

More than 94 Lakh balance and unutilized doses still available with States/UTs and private hospitals to be administered

As part of the nationwide vaccination drive, Government of India has been supporting the States and UTs by providing them COVID Vaccines free of cost. In the new phase of the universalization of the COVID19 vaccination drive, the Union Government will procure and supply (free of cost) 75% of the vaccines being produced by the vaccine manufacturers in the country to States and UTs.

More than 57.88 crore (57,88,90,150) vaccine doses have been provided to States/UTs so far, through all sources and a further 18,62,530 doses are in the pipeline.

Of this, the total consumption including wastages is 55,11,64,635 doses (as per data available at 8 AM today).

More than 94 Lakh (94,03,637) balance and unutilized COVID Vaccine doses are still available with the States/UTs and private hospitals to be administered.

Details: https://pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=1746849

“In future, recommendations for boosters will definitely come”

“Mix-and-match of vaccines will definitely not cause a safety issue”

“Wearing mask properly and actively encouraging everyone to get vaccinated are the two biggest weapons to control further waves”

Priya Abraham, National Institute of Virology Director speaks on scientific developments on COVID-19

ICMR-National Institute of Virology (NIV) in Pune has been working on a war-footing for the whole of last one year.  “2021 was a difficult but rewarding year for us”, said Ms. Priya Abraham, Director of ICMR-NIV, which has been at the forefront of scientific research on SARS-CoV-2 in the country. in an interview with India Science, the OTT channel of the Department of Science & Technology.

Giving a quick overview of vaccine development process carried out at the institute which has been at the forefront of scientific research on SARS-CoV-2 in the country, she explained: “We quickly isolated and gave a strain to Bharat Biotech International Limited (BBIL) by the end of April (2020), after which they developed a whole virion-inactivated vaccine in the month of May and gave us back for review.  We checked it for its complete inactivation, did its complete characterisation and started pre-clinical trials on hamsters and non-human primates, that is, monkeys. Those are very difficult experiments to do. These were conducted in our highest Bio-Safety Level-4 level containment facilities.  In the next phase, we assisted them in the Phase I, II and III clinical trials in areas such as diagnostic aspect and laboratory support”.

Details: https://pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=1746864

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