India reported the highest daily Covid-19 cases on Friday since the breakout of the pandemic last year. This is the third consecutive day when the country reported the sharpest rise in the new pandemic cases, pushing the Friday tally to 1,31,968 infections till 8 am ( for last 24 hours). India’s total cases now stand at 13,06,05,42 of which total recoveries are 11,913,292; active cases are at 9,79,608 and the death toll has increased to 1,67,642 with 780 deaths reported in the last 24 hours.
The cumulative number of Covid-19 vaccine doses administered in the country has crossed 9 crore on Thursday with 9,40,96,689 shots given till 8 pm. Total of 34,73,083 vaccine shots were given on Thursday till 8 pm. These include 89,74,122 Healthcare Workers (HCWs) who have taken the 1st dose and 54,48,206 HCWs who have taken the 2nd dose, 98,09,525 Frontline Workers (FLWs) (1st dose), 45,41,636 FLWs (2nd dose), 2,59,55,762 for over 45 years old to 59 years old (1st dose), 5,20,339 for over 45 years old to 59 years old (2nd dose), 3,74,95,435 for above 60 years (dose) and 13,51,664 for above 60 years (2nd dose).
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday urged the States to conduct proactive testing and strengthen governance for next two to three weeks in the wake of second wave of Covid pandemic. He asked all states to organise ‘Tika Utsav’ between April 11 and April 14 so that maximum number of people can be inoculated. He said there is a need to ramp up testing so that case positivity ratio could be brought down below 5 per cent.