India on Sunday completed one year of vaccination with more than two-third of adult population fully vaccinated. On the same day, the country recorded another spike in number of positive cases with over 2.71 lakh people added to total tally of over 3.71 crore total cases till date.

Meanwhile, the Tamil Nadu government declared holiday for classes 10, 11 and 12 till January 31 due to a surge in the number of Covid cases in the State. Exams which were scheduled to be held from January 19 for classes 10, 11 and 12 had also been deferred, says a press release. However, Maharashtra government said it will take a call on opening of school within next 10-15 days.

Milestone

The countrywide vaccination drive against Covid-19 on Sunday completed one year, during which over 156.76 crore vaccine doses were administered.

According to health ministry officials, over 93 per cent of the adult population have received at least one dose while over 69.8 per cent have been fully vaccinated. A commemorative postage stamp on indigenously developed vaccine Covaxin was released to mark one year of the inoculation drive.

Earlier in the day, Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya, in a tweet, said India crossed the landmark milestone of administering 10 crore vaccine doses on April 1 last year. As many as 25 crore vaccine doses were administered on June 25, crossed 50 crore vaccine doses on August 6 and 75 crore on September 13, he said.

Nationwide cases

Meanwhile, India added 2,71,202 new coronavirus infections, taking the total tally to 3,71,22,164, including 7,743 cases of the Omicron variant, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Sunday.

The country saw 1,702 new cases of Omicron variant, the highest in a single day so far, and an increase of 28.17 per cent since Saturday. Experts said it is not possible to undertake genome sequencing of each and every sample, but stressed that this wave is largely being driven by Omicron.

The active cases have increased to 15,50,377, the highest in 225 days, while the death toll has climbed to 4,86,066 with 314 fresh fatalities, the data updated at 8 am stated. The daily positivity rate was recorded at 16.28 per cent, while the weekly positivity rate was recorded at 13.69 per cent, according to the ministry.

States’ move

Andhra Pradesh continues to report a very high rate of growth in Covid-19 infections. Every sixth person tested in the State is turning positive. The State reported 4,570 cases on testing 30,022 samples on Sunday.

The number of active cases has gone up by over five times to 26,770 on Sunday from 4,774 a week ago. Chittoor and Visakhapatnam districts continue to be a cause of concern with over 11,700 cases being reported from these two districts alone.

In neighbouring Telangana, the government has extended holidays to all academic institutions till January 30. The State, which declared holidays from January 6 to 16, has extended the holidays in view of the spurt in Covid-19 cases. Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao has convened a Cabinet meet on Monday afternoon to take stock of the Covid-19 situation and discuss further measures to curb the spread of the infection.

(With inputs from Hyderabad, Chennai bureaus)

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