India reports 15,102 COVID-19 cases, 278 deaths in last 24 hours

India reported 15,102 fresh COVID-19 cases, 31,377 recoveries, and 278 deaths in the last 24 hours, according to the data updated by the health ministry on Wednesday.

The daily addition in cases was 12.6% higher than yesterday. Active cases have now reached 1,64,522, comprising 0.38% of the total caseload. The daily positivity rate is 1.28%.

The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare had said on Tuesday that the number of active cases fell below two lakh for the first time in 49 days.

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With 31,377 more recoveries, the total recoveries have reached 4,21,89,887. 

A total of 1,76,19,39,020 COVID-19 vaccine doses have been administered so far. The nation’s mass vaccination campaign was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on January 16 last year.

Meanwhile, the Drugs Controller General of India granted restricted emergency use authorisation (EUA) to Biological E’s COVID-19 vaccine Corbevax for the 12 to 18 years age group, subject to certain conditions, official sources said on Monday.  

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This is the third vaccine to have received EUA from the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) for the age group of 12-18 years after Zydus Cadila’s ZyCoV-D and Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin.

At present, India is using Covaxin to vaccinate adolescents in the 15 to 18 years age group.

India’s COVID-19 tally had crossed the 20-lakh mark on August 7, 2020, 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.

(Written with PTI inputs)