India, which reported its first case on January 30 last year, is the third worst-hit country in the world by the pandemic after the United States and Brazil. Amid the worrying rise in the number of infections, Maharashtra, the worst-hit state in the country, will impose a night curfew from Sunday. Over 1.12 crore people in the country have recovered since the beginning of the pandemic.
Maharashtra will enforce a night curfew from Sunday, Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray's office said, as the state struggles with its biggest surge in coronavirus infections since the beginning of the pandemic. Shopping malls will be closed from 8 pm to 7 am, the order said. The state reported nearly 37,000 new Covid cases. Over 5,500 cases were recorded in Mumbai in 24 hours in the sharpest single-day rise.
Maharashtra is followed by the southern states of Kerala, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu in terms of the total number of COVID-19 cases reported so far.
While Kerala reported 1,825 new cases, neighbouring Karnataka saw 2,566 fresh infections.
After Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh reported the highest number of fresh cases with 2,665 infections in the last 24 hours.
31,581 active cases in the last 24 hours took the tally to 4,52,627.
Over 5.81 crore beneficiaries have been vaccinated in India so far, since the mammoth inoculation drive began in January. 26.05 people were vaccinated in the last 24 hours.
Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan said on Friday said India will widen its coronavirus vaccination campaign in the "near future" to include more people, instead of restricting it to those above age 45. He said both Covaxin and Covishied are completely safe and immunogenic and as of now, there are no concerns about the safety of these vaccines being used in the country.
India told the UN General Assembly that it has supplied more COVID-19 vaccines globally than it has vaccinated its own people. India also cautioned that vaccine inequity will defeat the collective global resolve to contain the coronavirus as the disparity in the accessibility of vaccines will affect the poorest nations the most.
The renewed jump in cases has prompted India to put the brakes on exports of vaccines.
Global coronavirus infections have soared past 12.54 crore, with the US remaining the country hit hardest by far by the health crisis gripping the world, with over 5.46 lakh deaths.
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