New Delhi: India’s daily COVID-19 case count on Saturday (June 19, 2021) dipped further after the country reported 60,753 new infections in the last 24 hours.
According to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, India’s active caseload has now declined to 7,60,019, which is the lowest after 74 days.
The country also witnessed 1,647 coronavirus-related deaths and 97,743 discharges between Friday and Saturday morning. India’s weekly positivity rate now stands at 3.58%, while the daily positivity rate is at 2.98%.
The country’s total COVID-19 tally has now increased to 2,98,23,546, of which, 2,86,78,390 people have recovered, while 3,85,137 have died of the virus.
Earlier on Friday, Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan claimed that citizens let their guard down in following COVID-19-appropriate behaviour while the coronavirus mutated and this led to a spurt in cases that snowballed into the second wave.
“With the arrival of vaccines early this year and things returning to normal, people gradually invited laxity in their adherence to the simple code of Covid appropriate behaviour. While the virus mutated and evolved, we let our guard down. All this compounded in the spike in cases, snowballing into the second wave,” Vardhan said.
“With many corners of India gradually moving towards unlocking from the second wave, we cannot afford laxity and any further increase in cases again,” he said.
Meanwhile, 27.23 crore vaccine doses have been administered across the country. On Friday, the Centre had said that several studies of inoculated healthcare workers revealed that the chance of hospitalisation was reduced by nearly 80 per cent.
NITI Aayog Member (Health) Dr VK Paul said studies conducted among healthcare workers who fall in the high-risk group showed that the risk of ICU admission remains only 6 per cent and the protection against infection was 94 per cent.
“Similar studies in other countries have also shown the protection vaccine gives. I request people to please accept the vaccine and not hesitate,” he further added.
Bureau report
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