At 38,353, India sees a sudden jump in Covid-19 cases, 497 deaths in 24 hours

New Delhi: India on Wednesday reported 38,353 fresh Covid cases, which is 36 per cent higher than 28,204 reported yesterday. The country also reported 497 deaths, taking the cumulative death count to 4,29,179.

The daily positivity rate stands at 2.16 per cent, which has been less than 3 per cent for last 16 days.

India's active caseload has climbed to 3,86,351--the lowest in 140 days, the union health ministry added. The Covid-19 active cases constitute 1.21% of the total cases.

On Tuesday, the central government said that 37 districts across the country are showing a rising trend in the average daily new cases of Covid-19 over the last two weeks even as the corresponding nationwide figure is falling.

The reproduction number or R number that indicates the speed at which Covid-19 is spreading is more than 1 in five states, the health ministry officials also mentioned at the briefing, adding that it is "a cause of concern." These five states are Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh.

R-value of 1 and below is considered safe as that means that 100 people are infecting either the same number of people or less. This is an indication that the number of new infections is not more than the number of existing infections.

Meanwhile, on the vaccination front, nearly 520 million doses have been administered to the beneficiaries as of Tuesday. More than 3.7 million (37,76,765) doses were administered during the day, according to the 7 pm provisional report published by the government.

Besides, India has achieved its highest recovery rate today at 97.45%, the health ministry said. A total 40,013 patients recovered in the last 24 hours.

The weekly positivity rate also remained below 5% and is currently at 2.34%. Further, the daily positivity rate is at 2.16%, less than 3% for 15 consecutive days.

Meanwhile, a study on mixing Covishield and Covaxin, the two main vaccines used in India's COVID-19 vaccination programme, has been given a go-ahead by the Drugs Controller General Of India (DCGI), say sources.

This study and its clinical trials, sources add, will be conducted by Vellore's Christian Medical College.