COVID-19: India logs 1,033 new cases, 43 more deaths
India on Thursday reported over 1,000 new COVID-19 cases, a slight decline from the day before. The country's active caseload currently stands at 11,639, which accounts for 0.03% of the total cases so far. In the past 24 hours, a total of 1,033 new cases—a decrease of nearly 50 cases from Wednesday—and 43 fatalities were reported. Meanwhile, India's COVID-19 recovery rate stood at 98.76%.
Why does this story matter?
India on Thursday reported fewer COVID-19 cases than the day before. Meanwhile, both the active caseload and positivity rates continued with their declining trend on Thursday. This comes after India witnessed a massive spurt in coronavirus infections in December-end and at the beginning of January. This spike in cases—dubbed India's third wave—was attributed to the Omicron variant.
1,222 patients discharged
According to data shared by the Union Health Ministry, India reported a total of 4,30,31,958 COVID-19 cases until Thursday morning, while the cumulative death count reached 5,21,530. With 1,222 fresh discharges, the number of total recoveries in the country climbed to 4,24,98,789. On the other hand, the daily and weekly positivity rates were recorded at 0.21% and 0.22%, respectively.
Kerala adds most new cases
Kerala saw 361 new cases and 369 discharges in the last 24 hours. Maharashtra reported 108 new COVID-19 cases along with 106 more recoveries and seven deaths during the same period. Delhi reported 126 new cases and 120 recoveries, while Karnataka added 33 fresh cases along with 85 recoveries. Tamil Nadu, on the other hand, witnessed 30 new cases and 28 discharges.
India's second wave peaked on May 7
India's second wave peaked on May 7, 2021, when 4.14 lakh single-day cases were reported, over four times the number of cases reported during the first wave in mid-September 2020. Although infections declined after the second wave peaked, India crossed the three-crore mark on June 23. The country crossed the one-crore mark on December 19, 2020, and the two-crore mark on May 4, 2021.
Over 185 crore vaccine doses administered so far
As of Thursday morning, India has administered over 185.1 crore COVID-19 vaccine doses. Overall, over 83.5 crore people have been fully vaccinated, while more than 99.2 crore people have received one dose. On Thursday alone, India administered over 1.22 lakh COVID-19 vaccine doses till 10:30 am, including over 53,000 second doses and over 46,000 first doses, according to Co-WIN.
2.25 crore 'precautionary' doses administered
Moreover, India has administered over 2.25 crore "precautionary" doses since January 10. On Thursday, over 3,800 healthcare/frontline workers and more than 19,000 elderly people were given the precautionary dose till 10:30 am.
India's first case of XE variant reported from Mumbai
Separately, the Mumbai/brihanmumbai-municipal-corporation'>Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation on Wednesday said India's first case of coronavirus variant XE was reported in Mumbai. However, Union Health Ministry officials disagreed, saying the genomic constitution of this variant does not correlate with the XE variant's genomic picture. Notably, the World Health Organization last week said that the XE variant may be more transmissible than any other strain of COVID-19.
