Prime Minister Narendra Modi will interact with chief ministers on the emerging Covid situation in India on Wednesday through video conferencing, an official said. Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan will make a presentation at the conference. With several festivals coming up, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had on Sunday urged people to stay alert to the threat from the coronavirus and continue to follow Covid-appropriate behaviour such as wearing masks and frequently washing hands.
Over 86 per cent of India’s adult population is now fully vaccinated against the coronavirus infection, Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya said as the number of cumulative vaccine doses administered in the country crossed 1.88 billion on Tuesday. More than 19,67,717 vaccine doses have been administered till 7 pm on Tuesday. The daily vaccination tally is expected to increase with the compilation of the final reports for the day by late night. Over 46,044 precaution doses of Covid vaccine were administered in those aged 18-59 years till 7 pm on Tuesday, taking the total number of precaution doses given in this age-group to 5,15,290 so far, according to the health ministry data.
The Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) granted emergency use authorisation to Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin for the age group 6-12 years and Corbevax for the age group 5-12 years. Zydus Cadila’s two-dose Covid-19 vaccine, meanwhile, has been approved for the 12 years and above population.
India reported more than 15,700 fresh cases in the week (April 18-24) as compared to 8,050 earlier, an increase of 95%. This was the second week of rising cases after a steady decline for 11 consecutive weeks. Delhi, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh accounted for a bulk of the new cases during the week, with most of the numbers coming from NCR cities. These were the only three states where cases had registered an increase last week. This week, nine other states reported a rise in cases, including Kerala, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Bengal, Rajasthan and Punjab.
