New Delhi: According to the data released by the Union Health Ministry, which was last updated on Saturday at 8 pm, India’s total tally of Covid cases has reached over four crore. As per the report, around two lakh thirty-five thousand people have tested positive in the last twenty-four hours, which is around six per cent lower than the reported cases on Friday.
The death toll reached 4,93,198 with 871 fatalities reported in the last 24 hours. The recovery rate in the country currently stands at about ninety-four per cent, the Union Health Ministry press release said. The daily positivity rate is currently at 13.39 per cent, while the weekly positivity rate is at 16.89 per cent.
The Covid vaccination coverage in the country has crossed 165.60 crore mark. It has been reported that more than fifty-three lakh vaccine doses had already been administered by Saturday, till the time the report was released.
India had surpassed the one crore mark in the number of cases on December 19, 2020. It crossed the grim milestone of two crore covid cases on May 4 and then the three crore mark on June 23. It should be noted that the time period from April 2021 to June 2021 was the period when the second wave of coronavirus had hit the country. The Delta variant of the coronavirus was the reason for the high infection rate at that time.
The Delta variant of the virus was labelled as the ‘Variants of Concern’ (VoC) by the India Sars Cov2 Genome Consortium (INSACOG).
Covid cases and Vaccination drive in phases
The vaccine availability and rollout were very low in comparison to the target set by the Central Government. In the first phase of the vaccination drive, which began on the 16th of January, 2021, healthcare workers, frontline workers, including police, paramilitary personnel, disaster management volunteers and sanitation workers were covered. By the 1st of March 2021, only 1.5 crore healthcare and frontline workers had received the vaccination, while the goal was set for three crore vaccination in the given time frame.
The second phase of the vaccination started on 1st of March in 2021. Around ten thousand government centers and around twelve thousand private centers were involved in making the vaccination drive successful and reining the rapidly rising Covid cases. Citizens over the age of 60 or over the age of 45 with certain health conditions were eligible for vaccination in this phase. Later on, with an eye on the very fast growth in Delta variant related covid cases, all above the age of 45 were made eligible for the vaccination.
A report by the United Nations, in January 2022, said that the Delta Variant of the coronavirus had taken about two lakh forty thousand lives.