India records 19,740 new Covid-19 cases, 248 deaths
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India reported less than 20,000 new COVID-19 cases (19,740) in the last 24 hours, seven per cent lower than yesterday's figure when the country recorded 21,257 cases. The country also reported 248 deaths due to coronavirus.
The top five states which registered the maximum number of Covid-19 cases are Kerala with 10,944 cases, followed by Maharashtra with 2,620 cases, Tamil Nadu with 1,359 cases, Mizoram with 950 cases and West Bengal with 784 cases.
As many as 84.37 per cent of the new cases were reported from these five states, with Kerala alone responsible for 55.44 per cent of the new cases.
Maximum casualties were reported in Kerala (120), followed by Maharashtra with 59 daily deaths. Amid protest by the opposition alleging under-reporting of COVID deaths in Kerala, the state government has decided to include 7,000 more victims of the pandemic in its official death list.
India is likely to start vaccinating children in the 12-17 age group for COVID-19 from October. The Drug Controller of India (DCGI) approved the needleless three-dose vaccine ZyCov-D from Cadila Healthcare for children in September. It is the first vaccine built on the plasmid DNA platform and received emergency use approval for use in children.
As of Saturday morning, India's recovery rate stands at 97.98 per cent even as a total of 23,070 patients recovered from the Covid-19 infection in the last 24 hours, which brings the total recoveries to 3,32,48,291 across the country.
Also, India's active caseload declined by 3,578 in the last 24 hours. The overall active cases tally stands at 2,36,643.
India has administered a total of 79,12,202 doses in the last 24 hours, which brings the total tally of doses administered to 93,99,15,323.