India has registered 14,989 new coronavirus cases and 98 fatalities in the last 24 hours, pushing the overall infection tally and death toll to 1,11,39,516 and 1,57,346, respectively, the Union Health Ministry said on Wednesday.
As per the Ministry’s data, there are currently 1,70,126 active cases after 13,123 patients were discharged in a day.
Till now, 1,08,12,044 persons have been discharged. The recovery rate has reduced to 97.06 per cent.
Five states — Maharashtra, Kerala, Karnataka, Punjab and Tamil Nadu cumulatively account for 84.16 per cent of the total active cases in the country.
Till now, 1,56,20,749 doses of corona vaccine have been administered in the country since the mass inoculation drive began on January 16.
The third phase of vaccination against Covid-19 pandemic began on Monday covering 27 crore of people above 60 and those above 45 years of age with comorbidities at 10,000 government and over 20,000 private vaccination centres.
While people will be vaccinated free of cost at government hospitals, those taking the shots at private hospitals will have to pay.
Here’s some more updates:
*Chief Minister Pramod Sawant on Wednesday was administered the Covid-19 vaccine at the Sanquelim primary health centre in North Goa.
*A patient at a long-term care hospital in South Korea with underlying diseases died on Wednesday after receiving the AstraZeneca vaccine against Covid-19, officials said.
* Centre has directed all the states and union territories to utilize all private hospitals – empanelled under government insurance schemes in full capacity to achieve optimum number of vaccination.
* Around 50 lakh people have self-registered for vaccination through CoWIN since the portal was opened for registration, Ram Sevak Sharma, chairman of the empowered panel on Covid vaccination, said on Tuesday.
* The total number of global Covid-19 cases has topped 114.7 million, while the deaths have surged to more than 2.54 million, according to the Johns Hopkins University.
