India reports 36,571 new COVID-19 cases, marginally higher than yesterday
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India on Friday recorded 36,571 new coronavirus cases over the last 24 hours while deaths from COVID-19 rose by 540. The country's overall case load now stands at 3.23 crore, while total fatalities are at 4.33 lakhs, according to the health ministry.
Kerala contributed 21,116 cases to the country's daily numbers. The southern state has been contributing to more than 50 per cent of new infections in the country. Kerala has a test positivity rate of around 13.97 per cent.
Maharashtra, the worst-hit state in the country, reported 5,225 new infections and 154 fatalities in 24 hours. Just seven districts, including Pune, account for the bulk of the infections in Maharashtra, while half a dozen other districts have less than ten active cases currently, according to the state government.
The active cases have declined to 3,63,605, the lowest in 150 days, and comprise 1.12 percent of the total infections, the lowest since March 2020, the ministry said. A reduction of 524 cases has been recorded in the active COVID-19 caseload in a span of 24 hours.
As many as 18,86,271 tests were conducted on Thursday taking the total cumulative tests conducted so far for detection of COVID-19 in the country to 50,26,99,702. The daily positivity rate was recorded at 1.94 percent. It has been less than three percent for the last 25 days.
The weekly positivity rate was recorded at 1.93 percent. It has been below three percent for the last 56 days, according to the ministry. The number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 3,15,61,635, while the case fatality rate stands at 1.34 percent, the data stated.
Meanwhile, US pharma giant Johnson & Johnson (J&J) has moved an application to the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) in India seeking permission to conduct clinical trials of its single shot Janssen vaccine against Covid-19 on adolescents aged 12-17 years.
The single-shot Covid vaccine developed by Johnson and Johnson has shown 85% efficacy in preventing severe Covid-19 disease in phase 3 clinical trials.
