Maharashtra, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, and Kerala remained the worst-hit. (File)
New Delhi:
A second dry run for COVID-19 vaccination will be held in all the states today, sources have said. The first massive dry run was held on January 2. The exercise checked the best way to vaccinate people against COVID-19 and plug loopholes in logistics and training.
The day-long drive today will again test the operational feasibility of CoWIN application in a field environment. Short for Covid Vaccine Intelligence Network, CoWIN is a digital platform to roll out and scale up the vaccination drive. The government has said vaccination for COVID-19 would start within 10 days from the day when vaccine-makers were given emergency use authorisation. India has cleared Oxford-AstraZeneca’s Covishield manufactured by the Serum Institute of India and Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin.
The number of fresh COVID-19 cases in India increased by 20,346 since yesterday, indicating a 12% spike, to hit 1,03,95,278. Of these, a little over 2.8 lakh were active cases. The number of deaths in the past 24 hours increased by 222 to touch an overall 1,50,336.
Maharashtra, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, and Kerala remained the worst-hit, reporting the bulk of the fresh cases as well as deaths. Maharashtra recorded 4,382 new cases and 66 deaths – by far the most among all states.
Here are the LIVE updates on Coronavirus Cases:
The Union Health Secretary wrote to the Maharashtra, Kerala, Chhattisgarh and Bengal governments on Thursday to underline the need for “strict vigil” and “prompt action” to arrest the recent spike in coronavirus cases in each of the states. These four states account for 59 per cent of all active Covid cases in the country, the Health Secretary, Rajesh Bhushan, said in his letter.
A second dry run to check the best way to vaccinate people against COVID-19 and plug loopholes in logistics and training will take place today from which a few states, which had undergone it earlier, will be exempt. Read Here
Moderna’s COVID-19 mRNA vaccine is likely to offer protection of up to a couple of years, its chief executive said on Thursday, even though more data is still needed to make a definitive assessment. The US biotech company, which stunned the world last year by coming up with a vaccine against the disease caused by the new coronavirus in just a few weeks, received approval for its shot from the European Commission on Wednesday.
The United States counted a record number of daily coronavirus deaths Thursday at nearly 4,000, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. The 3,998 deaths were recorded over the 24 hour period ending at 8:30 pm local time (0130 GMT Friday), during which the US notched 265,246 new infections, according to the university.
