As cases continue to spiral, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that India is ready to mass produce Covid-19 vaccines when scientists give the go-ahead and a roadmap is ready to get every Indian vaccinated.
Aspike of 65,002 cases took India’s Covid-19 tally past 25 lakh on Saturday just a day after it reached the 24-lakh mark, while 18 lakh people have so far recuperated from the disease pushing the recovery rate to 71.61 per cent, Union health ministry data showed.
India has been reporting over 60,000 cases daily since August 7, barring August 11 when the country registered 53,601 new instances of the infection.
The Covid-19 caseload stood at 25,26,192, while the death-toll climbed to 49,036 with 996 people succumbing to the disease in 24 hours, the data updated on Saturday 8 am showed. This is the second consecutive day India has recorded close to 1,000 fatalities.
There are 6,68,220,active cases of coronavirus infection in the country which is 26.45 per cent of the total caseload, while the number of recoveries has risen to 18,08,936. India’s Covid-19 tally had crossed the 20-lakh mark on August 7.
According to the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), in total 2,85,63,095 samples have been tested up to August 14 of which 8,68,679 were examined on Friday, the highest in a day so far.
Addressing the nation on Independence Day, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said India is ready to mass produce Covid-19 vaccines when scientists give the go-ahead.
“Not one, not two, as many as three coronavirus vaccines are being tested in India,” he said from the Red Fort.
“Along with mass-production, the roadmap for distribution of vaccine to every single Indian in the least possible time is also ready,” Modi said. “The country is also ready for mass production of those vaccines.”
