India’s daily cases of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) remained below 50,000 for the sixth day in a row on Friday with 44,879 cases and 547 deaths reported in the last 24 hours. According to the latest figures released by the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, the nation’s infection count has reached 8,728,795, yet the number of active cases remained below 4.9 lakh.
The decline in active cases and the steady increase in the number of recoveries from the disease continue to unite the hopes of citizens. Up to 8,115,580 people have recovered from the viral infection, either in Covid-19 designated hospitals or in home isolation.
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Earlier in the day, the Health Ministry attributed the high levels of testing in the states to the drop in coronavirus cases. “High-level and comprehensive TESTING is critical in the strategy to slow down the transmission chain,” the ministry wrote on Twitter.
He added that out of very few tests conducted in January, India has now climbed to a maximum of total tests of more than 12 crore rupees in November. According to a graph shared with the tweet, in the last six weeks an average of 11,03,398 daily tests for the coronavirus disease were carried out in the country.
“With a daily testing capacity of 15 liters, more than 11 liters were conducted on average every day for the last 6 weeks,” the Union ministry tweeted, adding that these comprehensive tests lead to early identification, isolation fast, timely hospitalization and effective treatment of Covid-19 patients. This eventually results in a decrease in the positivity rate and a low mortality rate, he said.
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As several vaccines are at different levels of trials in the country, the Pune-based Serum Institute of India announced Thursday that it has completed enrollment for phase 3 clinical trials for its candidate Covishield, adding that the trials of the Oxford vaccine have shown promise. results, which “so far give confidence that Covishield could be a realistic solution to the deadly pandemic.”
Meanwhile, confirmed cases of Covid-19 have risen to 52,678,681 while 1,292,228 have died from the disease. The United States continues to report the peak number of cases at 10,543,486, according to the Johns Hopkins University dashboard.
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