India reports over 2 lakh cases; record deaths at 959 as Kerala clears backlog

New Delhi: India logged 2,09,918 COVID cases in the last 24 hours and recorded 959 deaths taking the death toll to 4,95,050 in the country. The single-day death toll touched record high as Kerala added 374 deaths as backlog to its death count today.

The cumulative vaccine coverage crossed 166.03 crore in the country with the administration of over 28 lakh doses in the last 24 hours. Over 1.18 crore precaution doses have now been administered under the programme started for vulnerable groups on January 10. Meanwhile, over 4.5 crore children in the age group of 15-18 years have received their first dose of Covaxin.

With several states reporting a rise in daily COVID cases, the active cases mounted to 18,31,268 which constitutes 4.43 percent of the total positive cases in the country. 2,62,628 recoveries in the last 24 hours takes the recovery rate to 94.37 per cent, which has slightly risen from the previous week. The daily positivity rate stood at 15.77 percent while the weekly positivity rate has risen to 15.75 percent.

Maharashtra reported 22,444 cases over the period of 24 hours while deaths in the state also dropped slightly to 50. National capital Delhi recorded 3,674 new cases at a 6.37 per cent positivity rate as Delhi government officials said that the ‘worst is over’ for the capital. Karnataka, after recording record cases over the past week, logged 28,264 new cases with Bangalore reporting 11,938 out of the total cases in the state.

The Election Commission is set to hold a meeting on Monday to assess COVID-19 situation in the five poll-bound states to decide on the COVID restrictions and relaxations to be implemented in the state. The EC had earlier restricted all physical gatherings in the states, further extending it in the last meeting.

Over 21,000 teenagers in the age group of 15-17 years who got their first dose on January 3 will now be eligible for a second dose on Monday. This comes in view of the completion of the mandatory 28-day gap between the two Covaxin doses to be administered to teenagers.

The global caseload on Monday topped 369.4 million while the deaths surged to over 5.64 million. Total vaccinations crossed 9.92 billion according to John Hopkins University.