India reported 28,591 Covid cases on Sunday, more than 14 per cent lower than the previous day’s cases, as per the Health Ministry data. The daily deaths stood at 338 taking the total to 4,42,655 casualties so far. Notably, India’s cumulative vaccination coverage on Sunday crossed the 73.82 crore mark with the country administering 48.97 lakh doses till 7:30 PM, as per the CoWIN Dashboard. 

 

Meanwhile, the Government informed Saturday that the Nagpur-based National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI) under the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) has transferred the knowhow of an indigenously developed Saline Gargle RT-PCR technique, used for testing COVID-19 samples, to the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises(MSME) Ministry. 

 

“The Saline Gargle RT-PCR technology is simple, fast, cost-effective, patient-friendly and comfortable; it also provides instant test results and is well-suited for rural and tribal areas, given minimal infrastructure requirements,” the official statement said.

 

“The Saline Gargle RT-PCR method needs implementation across the nation, especially in resource-poor regions like rural and tribal areas. This would result in faster and more citizen-friendly testing and will strengthen our fight against the pandemic. The MSME unit had approached CSIR-NEERI for commercialising the Saline Gargle RT-PCR technology developed by CSIR-NEERI,” the Union Minister for Road Transport & Highways Nitin Gadkari said on the occasion. 

 

Also, the Government informed that more than 72.21 crore vaccine doses have been provided to the States/UTs so far through its free-of-cost channel and through direct state procurement category.

“Further, more than 57 lakh doses (57,56,240) are in the pipeline. More than 5.16 crore balance and unutilised Covid vaccine doses are still available with the States/UTs to be administered,” it added.

 

It is to be noted that the active cases declined by 6,595 in the last 24 hours till 8:00 AM and with this the active cases make up 1.16 per cent of the total infections. The total active caseload now stands at 3,84,921. Besides this, the recovery rate stood at 97.51 per cent and there were 34,848 recoveries in the last 24 hours till 8:00 AM.

 

Also, the weekly positivity rate was at 2.17 per cent, less than 3 per cent for the last 79 days and the daily positivity rate stood at 1.87 per cent, less than 3 per cent for the last 13 days. Further, India conducted 15.30 lakh tests on Saturday, aggregating to 54.18 crore tests done so far. 

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