India reports 2,961 new Covid cases in last 24 hours

NEW DELHI: India reported 2,961 new Covid cases in the last 24 hours, witnessing a fall from Friday's tally of 3,611 cases, according to the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Saturday.

According to the Ministry, the country's active caseload currently stands at 30,041.

The country reported 6,135 recoveries in the last 24 hours, taking the total number of recoveries to 4,44,05,550. The present recovery rate stands at 98.75 per cent.

The daily positivity rate of the country is 2.12 per cent while the weekly positivity rate stood at 2.63 per cent.

According to the Ministry, 1,198 doses of Covid vaccines were administered in the last 24 hours. The total number of vaccine doses administered rose to 220.66 crores under the Nationwide Vaccination Drive programme.

As many as 1,39, 814 Covid tests were conducted in the last 24 hours.

Earlier on April 20, in the wake of the spike in the number of COVID-19 cases across the country, Dr PK Mishra, the Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister chaired a high-level meeting to assess the situation.

During the meeting, a comprehensive presentation was made by Rajesh Bhushan, the Secretary of Health and Family Welfare providing an overview of the global Covid situation.

The presentation also provided an overview of the Genome Sequencing of different variants since January 2023 and noted the proportion of circulating variants in India.

The status of vaccination was discussed, followed by drug availability and infrastructure preparedness across the country, the PMO stated earlier.

Meanwhile, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has announced that Covid pandemic is over as a global health emergency.

Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of WHO, made the announcement while addressing a media briefing on Covid-19 and global health issues.