Covid-19 Live News Updates: India reported 18,930 fresh Covid-19 cases and 35 deaths in the last 24 hours ending at 8 am Thursday, data from the Union health ministry revealed. With a daily positivity rate at 4.32%, the total number of active cases now stands at 1,19,457. As many as 14,650 patients recovered from the infection.
The Union health ministry on Wednesday reduced the gap between the second dose and the precaution third dose of the Covid-19 vaccine from nine months to six months. On Wednesday, Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan wrote to the states that a decision has been taken to administer the precaution third dose to the adult population after completion of six months or 26 weeks from the date of administration of the second dose. At present, precaution dose is available free of cost at government vaccination centres to the priority groups -the frontline workers, healthcare workers, and the elderly population aged above 60 years. For those aged 18-59, the precaution dose is available only at private vaccination centres.
In a separate development, amid a surge in Covid-19 cases in Maharashtra, there has been no Covid-related death in Mumbai in the past 22 days. For the second day, the number of new Covid cases in the city was below 700. A day after reporting 659 cases, the city reported 695 cases on Wednesday. Also, Delhi reported 600 Covid-19 cases and one fatality due to the viral infection while the test positivity rate declined to 3.27 per cent, according to the data shared by the health department here on Wednesday. With the fresh cases and fatalities, Delhi”s Covid tally has climbed to 19,38,648 and the death toll has shot up to 26,276, the department said in a bulletin.
