India's active COVID-19 cases are less than 2.2 lakhs: Health Ministry

New Delhi [India], January 12 The Union Health Ministry on Tuesday said the active COVID-19 cases in the country are declining steadily and the current active cases are less than 2.2 lakhs.

Addressing a press conference here, Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan said, "COVID-19 situation is still worrisome across the world. The graph of active cases is climbing in USA, UK, Brazil, Russia and South Africa. In India, we have reported 12,584 new cases in the last 24 hours. The cases are declining in India; however, we should not let down our guard."

"Active cases continue to decline steadily in the country. The active cases in the country are less than 2.2 lakhs. Only two states have more than 50,000 active cases -- Maharashtra and Kerala. They together contribute 54 per cent in the total active cases of the country," he added.

Bhushan said out of the total 1.04 crore COVID-19 cases, only 2 per cent cases are reported active cases.

"Of the total active cases, 44 per cent are in hospital and 56 per cent in home isolation," he added.

Bhushan said the central govt is having close collaboration with states/UTs for vaccine roll-out. "All preparations are on track for vaccine roll-out from January 16, 2021," he said.

He said the COVID-19 vaccine may cost in the range of Rs 200 to 295 in India and two vaccines -- Covishiled and Covaxin -- have received Emergency Use Authorisation (EAU) after going through established safety and immunogenicity in a well-prescribed regulatory process.

( With inputs from ANI )