India records 20,000 fresh Covid cases, 222 deaths
With 20,346 new coronavirus infections and 222 deaths in the past 24 hours, India’s overall tally stood at 1,03,95,278 on Thursday, while the death toll touched 1,50,336, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said.
India continued its streak of low daily new cases. Till now, 1,00,16,859 have recovered. Currently, there are 2,28,083 active cases. The recovery rate stands at 96.36 per cent while the fatality rate is 1.45 as per cent.
The total number of samples tested up to January 6 is 17,84,00,995, including 9,37,590 samples tested on Wednesday, the Indian Council of Medical Research said.
Maharashtra continues to be the worst-hit state till date with 1,954,553 total cases.
Over 79 per cent of the daily new cases are being reported by 10 states – Kerala, Maharashtra, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan.
On Wednesday, the government deployed a high-level Central team to Kerala to review the public health interventions in management of Covid-19 by the state government and support the health authorities in these measures.
Meanwhile, the most-awaited mass vaccination drive is slated to begin soon, with approval of two vaccines. The Central government plans to vaccinate nearly 30 crore people in the first phase of drive.
It will be offered to one crore health care workers, along with 2 crore frontline and essential workers, 26 crore people above the age of 50 and one crore below 50 with co-morbidities. IANS
