As India’s active cases of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) slipped below the 400,000 mark on Monday, the government said it was the country’s lowest tally since July 20 when 390,459 infections were reported. India recorded 32,981 new Covid-19 infections in the last 24 hours, taking the country’s tally past 9.67 million, the Union health ministry’s data showed.
“India has reported a landmark achievement today. India’s total active Covid-19 caseload has fallen below four lakh mark today to 396,729. This number translates to just 4.1% of total cases. This is the lowest after 140 days. The total active cases were 390,459 on July 20,” the government said in a press release.
There were 39,109 recoveries in the last 24 hours as against new cases which meant the total number of active cases slumped by 6,519, as per the ministry’s dashboard. The total number of recoveries and fatalities, meanwhile, is at 9,139,901 and 140,573 respectively. Recoveries, active cases and deaths constitute 94.45%, 4.10% and 1.45%, respectively, of India’s total cases.
India has continued the trend of reporting more new recoveries than daily Covid-19 cases as in the last 10 days, the government noted. Additionally, it said new cases recorded per million population in India in the last seven days, 182, are among the lowest in the world.
These numbers come even as it came to light Adar Poonawalla’s Serum Institute of India (SII) has applied for emergency use authorisation of Oxford University-AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 candidate, Covishield. This makes the Pune-based SII the second firm to have sought emergency use authorisation in India, after America’s Pfizer Inc, and the first indigenous firm to do so.
