India adds 12,408 Covid-19 cases, active cases fall below 152,000

There have been more than 10.4 million recoveries after 15,853 patients of the coronavirus disease were discharged or cured between Thursday and Friday morning, the health ministry's data showed.

India's tally of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) cases went past 10.8 million with 12,408 fresh infections, slightly lower than the previous day, and 120 related deaths in the last 24 hours even the recoveries surged to 10,496,308, according to the Union health ministry data showed on Friday. The number of deaths was, however, higher than Thursday's 107, data showed. According to the health ministry's dashboard at 8am, there have been 151,460 active cases and 154,823 deaths so far. The country’s active caseload remained below 200,000, which comprises 1.40% of the total cases.

The health ministry's dashboard showed that 4,959,445 people have been vaccinated since January 16. (REUTERS)

There have been more than 10.4 million recoveries after 15,853 patients of the coronavirus disease were discharged or cured between Thursday and Friday morning, the health ministry's data showed. The new discharges have pushed the national recovery rate to 97.16%.

The 120 new fatalities include 46 deaths from Maharashtra, 17 from Kerala, seven each Delhi and Punjab. Of the 154,823 deaths reported so far in the country include 51,215 fatalities from Maharashtra followed by 12,375 from Tamil Nadu, 12,227 from Karnataka, 10,871 from Delhi, 10,199 from West Bengal, 8,680 from Uttar Pradesh and 7,157 from Andhra Pradesh, according to the health ministry's data.

The dashboard also showed that 4,959,445 people have been vaccinated since January 16. The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has said that 19,99,31,795 samples have been tested up to February 4 with 715,776 samples being tested on Thursday.

Meanwhile, Pfizer has withdrawn an application for emergency use authorisation of its Covid-19 vaccine in India, the company spokesperson said. The US company which was the first drugmaker to apply for emergency use authorisation of its vaccine in India, participated in a subject expert committee meeting of the Drugs Regulatory Authority of India (DGCI) on Wednesday, following which it has decided to withdraw its application at this time.

The company’s spokesperson said it will continue to engage with DGCI and resubmit its approval request with additional information as it becomes available in the near future. Pfizer had applied for the emergency use authorisation to DCGI on December 6.

Reuters has reported that the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation had declined to accept Pfizer's request for approval without a small local trial on the vaccine's safety and immunogenicity for Indians. The government had in January approved a vaccine from Oxford University-AstraZeneca and another developed by Bharat Biotech with ICMR. Both companies had applied for approval of their vaccines after Pfizer.