Coronavirus cases: India records 16,432 new COVID-19 cases, 252 new deaths

New Delhi, Den 29: Union health ministry on Thesday said that India recorded 16,432 new cases of the coronavirus. With this, the nationwide tally reached 10,224,303.

According to the health ministry, the number of active cases dropped to 2,68,581 while 98,07,569 patients were cured/discharged from hospitals.

The country also recorded 252 new fatalities due to the infection, which took the overall death toll to 1,48,153.

It can be seen that the government is carrying out vaccination dry run to prepare the infrastructure before the expected rollout of COVID-19 vaccine in January. The dry run will also help health authorities identify the shortcomings and sort out the issues before vaccines are administered to people.

Meanwhile, the health ministry said that India's recovery rate has increased to 95.83 per cent. It also said that India's Covid-19 cases per million population are among the lowest in the world (7,397) and the global average is 10,149.

On Monday, Union home secretary Ajay Bhalla wrote a letter to chief secretaries of all states to instruct the concerned authorities for their active support to the health ministry in identification, preparation of database, vaccine delivery, storage, security, shipment and vaccination of beneficiaries.

The Centre on Monday maintained the Covid-19 restrictions on various activities, noting that while there has been a continuous decline in active cases in India, there is a need for surveillance, containment and caution due to a surge globally and the emergence of a new variant of the virus in the UK.

In a statement, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) said that it has issued fresh guidelines for surveillance with regard to Covid-19 that will remain in force till January 31, as it asked the states and union territories to keep a strict vigil to prevent any rise in cases during the New Year celebrations and the winter season.