Vaccination biggest weapon against Covid pandemic: PM Modi

As the country witnesses an exponential rise in COVID-19 cases, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday reviewed the situation with chief ministers of various states. Home Minister Amit Shah and Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya also attended the meeting held via video-conferencing.

The meeting came on a day India logged 2,47,417 new infections, the highest in 236 days, taking the total tally of COVID-19 cases to 3,63,17,927, which included 5,488 cases of the Omicron variant.

According to the health ministry data, India’s active caseload is presently at 11,17,531. Weekly positivity rate in the country stands at 10.80 per cent and the daily positivity rate at 13.11 per cent. A total of 84,825 patients have recovered in the last 24 hours with the recovery rate at 95.59 per cent.

The ministry said in a statement that India’s COVID-19 vaccination coverage exceeded 154.61 crore on Thursday with administration of over 76 lakh doses in the last 24 hours.

According to the ministry data, over 26,73,385 precaution doses have been administered to healthcare workers, frontline workers and those aged 60 and above with comorbidities, while over three crore youngsters in the 15-18 age group have received the first dose of vaccine.