India's Covid chart continued to show improvement today, with the country recording 30,948 cases, a drop of 10.18 per cent from yesterday. 

About 403 deaths were recorded during the period, according to the Health Ministry.

Kerala contributed 17,106 cases to the country's daily numbers. The southern state has been contributing to more than 50 per cent of new infections in the country.

Maharashtra, the worst-hit state in the country, reported 4,575 new infections and 145 fatalities in 24 hours.

India's COVID-19 vaccination coverage has reached 58 crore with 44 lakh vaccine doses administered till Saturday evening.

The daily positivity rate remains less than 3 per cent for the last 27 days and is presently at 1.95 per cent. Active cases constitute 1.09% of total cases, the lowest since March 2020, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate stands 97.57 per cent, the Union Health Ministry said.

No death due to COVID-19 was recorded in Delhi on Saturday, while 19 fresh cases were reported with a positivity rate of 0.08 per cent, according to data shared by the  health ministry. This is the 12th time since the starting of the second wave of the pandemic in the national capital that zero deaths have been logged in a day.

In the North East, Assam is planning to use the voters' list and data from 1,204 polling booths across Guwahati to verify the Covid vaccination status of the city's residents and identify those who have yet to get the jab. About 94 per cent of Guwahati residents have received one dose of a vaccine and 32.4 per cent both.

Zydus Cadila, whose Covid vaccine ZyCoV-D for adults and children aged 12 years and above got approval Friday, said it hopes to produce one crore doses per month by October. The company said it will produce 3-5 crore doses by December-January, adding that it will not be able to meet the government's commitment of 5 crore doses from August to December.

At present, vaccines Covishield, Covaxin and Sputnik V are being given to only those above 18 years of age and unlike ZyCoV-D, which is three-dose, these are administered in two doses.

Over 87,000 people across the country have been reported Covid positive after the second dose of vaccination. At least 46 per cent of those cases are from Kerala, Health Ministry sources have told NDTV. 

Coronavirus cases worldwide have surpassed the 200 million-mark. Cases are rising in about one-third of the world's countries, many of which have not even given half their population a first dose.

Source: NDTV

BDST: 1348 HRS, AUG 22, 2021
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