India adds 2,075 Covid-19 cases and 71 deaths in the past 24 hours, according to the data released by the Union Health Ministry on Saturday. India's cumulative caseload has surged to 43,006,080 while the active cases have declined to 27,802, comprising 0.06% of the overall caseload. In the past 24 hours, the active cases shrink to 1,379. So far, 4.24 crore people have recovered from Covid -19 in the country since March 2020 while 5,16,352 have died due to respiratory infection. As many as 3,383 people got recovered from Covid-19 in the past day.
The daily positivity rate stands at 0.56% and the weekly positivity rate was the same at 0.41% on Saturday.
A total number of 78.22 crore tests have been conducted so far. Of these, 3,70,514 tests were conducted in the last 24 hours.
Meanwhile, India's Covid-19 vaccination coverage has exceeded 181.04 crore as per provisional reports till 7 am today. The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has said that this has been achieved through 2,12,97,331 sessions.
So far, more than 9 lakh (9,04,700) children in the age group 12-14 years have been vaccinated against COVID-19. The vaccination drive for this age group was commenced on March 16 and children are being administered Corbevax vaccine.
Meanwhile, the Centre has asked the states to restart monitoring influenza-like illness and severe acute respiratory infections as Covid cases resurge in southeast Asia and Europe.
In a letter, Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan has asked all states and Union Territories to ensure an adequate number of samples are submitted to the INSACOG network for timely detection of new Covid variants.
He also stressed on maintaining testing according to protocols, observing all precautions and not letting the guard down while resuming economic and social activities.
With a spike in COVID-19 cases across Southeast Asia and some countries of Europe, a high-level meeting was chaired by Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya on March 16 where the states were advised to focus on aggressive genome sequencing, intensified surveillance and overall vigil on the Covid situation, Bhushan said in the letter.
He also emphasised continued focus on the five-fold strategy of test, track, treat and vaccination and adherence to Covid-appropriate behaviour.
