India’s Covid vaccination exceeds 131.18 cr mark

New Delhi: With the administration of 74,57,970 vaccine doses in the last 24 hours, India’s Covid-19 vaccination coverage has exceeded 131.18 crore as per provisional reports till 7 a.m. on Friday, the Union Health Ministry said.

This has been achieved through 1,36,76,290 sessions, a ministry statement said.

The recovery of 7,678 patients in the last 24 hours has increased the cumulative tally of recovered patients (since the beginning of the pandemic) to 3,41,05,066.

Consequently, India’s recovery rate stands at 98.36 per cent, highest since March 2020.

Sustained and collaborative efforts by the Centre and the states and Union Territories continue the trend of less than 15,000 daily new cases that is being reported for last 43 days now, it said.

Meanwhile, 8,503 new cases were reported in the last 24 hours.

India’s active caseload is presently at 94,943, constituting 0.27 per cent of the country’s total positive cases – the lowest since March 2020.

The testing capacity across the country continues to be expanded. The last 24 hours saw 12,93,412 tests being conducted, taking the total to over 65.32 crore.

While testing capacity has been enhanced across the country, weekly positivity rate at 0.72 per cent remains less than 1 per cent for the last 26 days now. The daily positivity rate reported to be 0.66 per cent and has remained below 2 per cent for last 67 days and below 3 per cent for 102 consecutive days now.

The statement also said that the Centre closely monitors Covid-19 vaccine stocks in states and Union Territories so as to ensure their optimal utilisation and states/UTs have been advised to closely monitor and utilise the near expiry vaccine doses.

Meanwhile, the government has sanctioned 1,563 Pressure Swing Adsorption (PSA) oxygen generation plants of which 1,463 have been commissioned. These include 1,225 plants which have been installed and commissioned under PMCARES Fund in every district of the country. Additionally, 338 plants are set up by PSUs of Ministries of Petroleum & Natural Gas, Power, Coal, Railways etc. The states have also been asked to install PSA plants in public health facilities and facilitate their installation in private health facilities.

(IANS)