India's vaccination drive gathers pace as Covid-19 cases rise; 10.93 lakh get jabs on Thursday

Covid-19 cases are on the rise again as India added 17,407 new patients of the infectious disease, including 29 fresh cases of the UK, Brazil and South African variants of the SARS-Cov-2 virus.

According to the Health Ministry data, India had last reported more than 17,407 cases on January 29 when the country had witnessed 18,855 new infections within a span of 24 hours.

Ten states – Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Haryana, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Punjab, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal – reported the highest number of cases in the past 14 days, as per the data available on Thursday morning.

The Covid-19 active caseload has increased to 1,73,413, which comprises 1.55% of the total infections.

The Ministry said India now had 242 patients with the UK, Brazil and South Africa strain of the virus – 29 new cases since the numbers of such cases were last released on Monday.

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On the vaccination front, former prime minister Manmohan Singh and his wife Gursharan Kaur were administered the home-grown Covaxin at the AIIMS here. The couple spent an hour at the hospital under medical observation.

Vaccination against Covid-19 picked up pace with 10.93 lakh persons being administered the jabs till 7:00 p.m. on Thursday. Till now, more than 1.77 crore Covid-19 vaccine doses have been given to the beneficiaries.

Of the 10.93 lakh beneficiaries vaccinated on Thursday, 4,93,999 were those above 60 years, while 75,147 were those between 45-60 years with comorbid conditions.

Out of the total 10,93,954 doses administered on Thursday, 8,34,141 were vaccinated for the first dose, while 2,59,813 healthcare workers and frontline workers received the second dose.

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Meanwhile, Maharashtra has reported the highest daily new cases at 9,855. This is the highest number recorded in the state since October 18 when 10,259 new cases were reported.

It is followed by Kerala with 2,765 while Punjab reported 772 new cases.

India's Covid-19 tally had crossed the 20-lakh mark on August 7, 30 lakh on August 23, 40 lakh on September 5 and 50 lakh on September 16. It went past 60 lakh on September 28, 70 lakh on October 11, crossed 80 lakh on October 29, 90 lakh on November 20 and surpassed the one-crore mark on December 19.