New Delhi, June 05:
India’s daily caseload of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) witnessed a further dip, as 120,529 cases were recorded in the last 24 hours, the Union ministry of health and family welfare (MoHFW) data, updated at 8am on Saturday, showed. With this, the national infection tally has risen to 28,694,879, the data showed further.
India’s latest positive cases were out of 2,084,421 samples tested for the viral disease, the government-run Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) tweeted on Saturday morning; in the preceding 24-hour period, 2,075,428 tests were carried out. With this, the number of samples tested thus far has reached 361,174,142, the ICMR data showed.
Earlier, on Friday, national capital Delhi witnessed a marginal rise in cases and related deaths, while the financial hub of Maharashtra witnessed a fall on both counts. While Delhi registered 523 fresh infections and 50 deaths — up from 487 and 45 the day before — Maharashtra logged 14,152 cases and 289 deaths, as against 15,229 and 307 on June 3. Both were particularly hard-hit by the second wave of the pandemic, which was at its peak in April-May, but have since announced measures to unlock from lockdown and lockdown-like curbs respectively.
Also on Friday, Pune-based Serum Institute of India (SII) received approval from the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) to manufacture the Russian-made Sputnik V Covid-19 vaccine. The SII is already manufacturing Oxford University-AstraZeneca’s shot as “Covishield” in India, while Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech has developed Covaxin.
