India reports lowest daily rise In 45 days
India’s COVID-19 graph continued to show declining trend with 1.73 lakh new Covid cases recorded in the last 24 hours, the lowest daily spike in 45 days. Earlier this month, the country’s daily cases hit a grim world record with 4.14 lakh infections.
Even as India continues to see an alarming surge in cases as compared to other nations in the world, this is the second consecutive day that less than 2 lakh cases have been registered. The positivity rate has been less than 10 per cent for the last five days.
The government on Friday reiterated that it aims to vaccinate the entire country by the end of this year. “The Health Ministry has given a blueprint. 108 crore people – with 216 crore doses – will be vaccinated by December,” Union Minister Prakash Javadekar said in a televised briefing amid attacks from the Congress’s Rahul Gandhi.
Foreign Minister S Jaishankar is in the United States and he said the pandemic and vaccines are an important part of the discussion with top officials of the Joe Biden administration. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said India was there was for the US in early days of COVID-19, something which the country “will never forget”.