India reported 28,204 new Covid-19 infections over the last 24 hours, the lowest since March 16, according to the health ministry’s data. As many as 373 deaths were reported on Monday, pushing the tally to 428,682. The active cases fell to 3,88,508, the lowest in 139 days.

In terms of vaccination, India’s Cumulative Covid vaccination coverage has crossed the landmark of 510 million (513,914,567), as per the provisional report released by the Centre on Monday.

In what represents a significant shift, India’s Covid-19 immunisation drive has taken a rural turn now: more than six out of 10 shots in the last three weeks were administered in rural vaccination centres, according to official data. Between May 1 (when the entire adult population was made eligible for vaccination) and June 23, only 51 per cent of the total doses were administered in rural India, the Centre had said in an affidavit to the Supreme Court on June 26. In absolute terms, this works out to 9.61 crore doses in the rural parts during the 54-day period — a daily average of 17.81 lakh doses.

The last three weeks have seen a sharp jump in rural vaccinations: of the total 9.87 crore doses administered in the last three weeks, 6.22 crore doses were in rural parts, which is 63 per cent of the total doses. The daily average in rural areas has thus increased to 29.66 lakhs now.

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. India crossed the grim milestone of two crore on May 4 and three crore on June 23.

Source: The Indian Express

BDST: 1413 HRS, AUG 10, 2021
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