With 18,139 new coronavirus cases and 234 deaths in the last 24 hours, India's overall tally stood at 1,04,13,417, while the death toll touched 1,50,570, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said on Friday.
Till now, 1,00,37,398 Covid-19 patients have recovered and currently there are 2,25,449 active cases. The recovery rate stands at 96.36 percent while the fatality rate is 1.45 percent.
The total number of samples tested up to 7 January is 17,93,36,364, including 9,35,369 samples tested on Thursday, the Indian Council of Medical Research said.
Over 79 percent of the daily new cases are being reported by 10 states. They are Kerala, Maharashtra, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan.
Maharashtra continues to be the worst-hit state till date. On Wednesday, the government deployed a high level Central team to Kerala to review the public health interventions in management of Covid-19 by the state government and support the health authorities in these measures.
Meanwhile, the most-awaited mass vaccination drive is slated to begin soon, with approval of two vaccines. The Central government plans to vaccinate nearly 30 crore people in the first phase of the drive.
It will be offered to one crore healthcare workers, along with 2 crore frontline and essential workers, 26 crore people above the age of 50 and one crore people below the age of 50 with comorbidities.
(This story has been published in an arrangement with IANS.)
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