Daily Covid-19 cases dipped to a 66-day low of 86,498 in the 24 hours ended Tuesday morning, from the peak of 4.14 lakh cases on May 7, according to data released by the Health Ministry on Tuesday.
“The average weekly cases, which were hovering around 3.87 lakh during May 5-11, have now come down to 1.17 lakh. There is a net decline of 33 per cent in average weekly cases since last week,” Lav Agarwal, Joint Secretary, Health Ministry, told a a media briefing here.
Also, to further curtail the spread of infections and inoculate the maximum number of people in the shortest time, the Centre has placed fresh orders for vaccines. It will procure 25 crore doses of Covishield and 19 crore vials of Covaxin, which will be available till December 2021 starting now, the Ministry said. Besides, the government has placed an order for 30 crore vaccine doses from the Hyderabad-based Biological E.
Bio E vax promising
“The provisional scientific data of Biological E’s Corbevax is very promising and we shall wait for the company to announce the price,” said VK Paul, Member (Health), NITI Aayog, during the briefing.
India has so far administered 23.61 crore vaccine doses with 33,64,676 shots given in the last 24 hours till Tuesday morning.
The number of districts reporting more than 100 daily cases dropped to 209 during the May 31-June 6 week compared to 531 in the April 28-May 4 week.
Active cases decline
Also, there has been a 65 per cent in the number of active cases that dropped to a little over 13 lakh.
The overall recovery rate has improved substantially to 94.3 per cent since May 3, when it was 81.8 per cent, the Ministry said.
As many as 18,73,485 tests were conducted on Monday adding up to 36.8 crore so far across the country.
The weekly positivity rate declined 70 per cent to 5.94 per cent, while the daily number stands at 4.62 per cent — under 10 per cent for 15 straight days.
Paul said vaccination appointments can be booked on the Co-WIN platform, while the option of on-site registration will also be available at private and government centres.