India vaccinates nearly 10.5 lakh beneficiaries till 6th day of nationwide COVID-19 vaccination drive

India crossed a significant landmark in its fight against COVID-19 with nearly 10.5 lakh beneficiaries inoculated under the nationwide vaccination drive as of January 22, 2021 (till 7 am), the Union Health Ministry said here on Friday.

In the last 24 hours, 2,37,050 people were vaccinated across 4,049 sessions. A total of 18,167 sessions have been conducted so far.

Karnataka saw the highest number of beneficiaries getting vaccinated at 1,38,807 followed by Andhra Pradesh (1,15,365), Odisha (1,13,623), Telangana (97,087), Bihar (63,541), West Bengal (53,988), Maharashtra (52,393), Haryana (45,893), Tamil Nadu (42,947), Madhya Pradesh (38,278), Kerala (35,173), Gujarat (34,865), Rajasthan (32,379), Uttar Pradesh (22,644), Chhattisgarh (22,171), Delhi (18,844) and Punjab (12,532).

Other states, which took part in the drive were -- Jharkhand (11,641), Assam (10,676), Tripura (9,272), Uttarakhand (8,206), Jammu and Kashmir (6,847), Himachal Pradesh (5,790), Arunachal Pradesh (4,682), Nagaland (3,187), Mizoram (2,537), Meghalaya (1,785), Mpur (1,454), Andaman and Nicobara Islands (1,032), Puducherry (759), Sikkim (773), Chandigarh (753), Goa (426), Lakshadweep (369), Ladakh (240), Dadra and Nagar Haveli (184) and Daman and Diu (94).

The statement said, on the testing front too, India continued to register growing numbers. The expansion in testing infrastructure has given a boost to India's fight against the global pandemic. The cumulative testing has crossed 19 crore.

Around 8,00,242 samples were tested in the last 24 hours, which has increased India's total cumulative tests to 19,01,48,024.

Comprehensive and widespread testing on a sustained basis has resulted in bringing down the positivity rate (percentage of people who test positive for COVID-19). The cumulative positivity rate stands at 5.59 per cent as of today.

Steadily following the trend set over the past weeks, India's active caseload has fallen to 1.78 per cent of the total active cases. India's active caseload presently stands at 1,88,688.

Around 18,002 new recoveries were registered during the past 24 hours. This has led to a net decline of 3,620 cases from the total active caseload in the last 24 hours.

The total recovered cases are 10,283,708 today pushing the growing gap between the recovered and the active cases to 1,00,95,020 (54.5 times). The recovery rate has improved to 96.78 per cent.

Around 84.70 per cent of the new recovered cases are contributed by 10 states/UTs.

Kerala saw 6,229 persons recovering from COVID-19. Maharashtra and Karnataka reported 3,980 and 815 new recoveries, respectively.

A total of 14,545 new positive cases were reported in the last 24 hours.

Eight states/UTs have contributed 84.14 per cent of the new cases.

Kerala reported 6,334 cases in the last 24 hours. Maharashtra recorded 2,886 new cases while Karnataka registered 674 daily cases yesterday.

Around 82.82 per cent of the 163 case fatalities that have been reported in the past 24 hours are from nine states/UTs.

Maharashtra has reported the maximum new daily deaths with 52 deaths. Kerala also saw a fatality count of 21.

The nationwide COVID-19 vaccination drive was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on January 16, 2021. Termed as the world's largest vaccination program, covering the entire length and breadth of the country, the drive aims to first vaccinate millions of its healthcare and frontline workers and reach an estimated 3 crore people by the end of its first phase.

( With inputs from ANI )