With 4,194 deaths, daily COVID toll continues to rise; cases drop to 257,299

India recorded 257,299 new cases of COVID-19 in the past 24 hours. The nation’s tally of COVID-19 cases now stands at 26,289,290. On Friday, 4,194 people died from COVID-19 across the country, taking the death toll to 295,525.

There are currently 2,923,400 active cases of COVID-19 in India. A total of 

357,630 people recovered from the coronavirus infection on Friday. The tally of recovered COVID-19 cases in India now stands at 23,070,365

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The Indian Council of Medical Research on Saturday said that 2,066,285 samples for COVID-19 were tested across the nation in the past 24 hours. As of May 21, up to 326,484,155 samples for COVID-19 have been tested across India.

India kicked off its mass vaccination drive against COVID-19 on January 16, starting with healthcare and frontline workers, and as of May 21, more than 193,200,000 people have received at least the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.

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On May 14, India administered its first foreign-made vaccine dose of Russia’s Sputnik V. The country is administering three COVID-19 vaccines as of now, including Covaxin and Covishield.