According to the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, India’s coronavirus disease (Covid-19) caseload now stands at over 28.44 million, with 134,154 new infections added to the tally on Thursday. On Thursday, the country had reported less than 200,000 cases per day for the previous week. The positivity rate also continued to fall, falling to 6.20 percent for the tenth day in a row, below 10%. The number of active cases has also decreased by 80,000, to 1,713,413, according to the ministry’s data.
Meanwhile, the government made its first advance commitment when it agreed to pay Biological E in Hyderabad 1,500 crores for 300 million doses of Covid-19 vaccine. Clinical trials for the company’s vaccine candidate are currently in their final stages.
According to the Johns Hopkins University Covid tracker, the viral disease has affected over 172 million people worldwide and caused over 3.6 million deaths since the pandemic began. According to the tracker, over 2 billion vaccine doses have been administered globally to date. In order to meet the growing surge in demand, the US is also ready to release the first tranche of 25 million vaccine doses to countries in desperate need, including India.
The first case of Delta coronavirus variant—the name given by the World Health Organization (WHO) to the variant first discovered in India—has been discovered in Victoria, Australia. The demand for a thorough investigation into the Wuhan Lab leak theory is growing. Recently, US top infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci demanded that China release the lab workers’ medical records, which could help determine the theory’s veracity.
