India records 217,353 fresh Covid-19 cases in highest-ever daily spike
India's infection trajectory has seen a major upward push as it reels under the second wave of infections.
The number of new coronavirus disease (Covid-19) cases in India hit a record daily hike on Friday, with 217,353 fresh infections reported in the last 24 hours, according to the Union ministry of health and family welfare. This was the eighth record daily increase in the last nine days. As many as 1,185 people lost their lives due to the coronavirus disease in the same period, according to the health ministry's dashboard at 8am. With this, the country's infection tally went up to 14,291,917 and its death toll rose to 173,123.
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India's infection trajectory has seen a major upward push as it reels under the second wave of the pandemic. According to news agency PTI, the country on Thursday registered a steady increase in the number of active cases of the disease for the 36th day in a row. The active cases increased to 14,71,877, comprising 10.46 per cent of the total infections, while the national Covid-19 recovery rate has dropped to 88.31 per cent, the agency said. India's active cases on Friday were at 15,697,43, and total recoveries stood at 1,25,47,866.
Meanwhile, according to the health ministry, the country administered over 117 million coronavirus vaccine doses till Thursday evening. In order to boost the drive further, the national drug controller assured that it will take just three days to process applications of foreign-made vaccines once they’ve been approved for emergency use in the country.
As many as 117,096,037 vaccine doses have been given in the country till now, which included the 10,290,850 frontline workers who have had their first dose and the 5,151,557 who have got their second dose.
The country's Covid-19 tally crossed the 2-million mark on August 7, 3-million on August 23, 4-million on September 5 and 5-million on September 16. On September 28, the infection tally went past 6-million, surpassed the 7-million mark on October 11, 8-million on October 29, 9-million on November 20 and the 10-million mark on December 19.