India records 20,557 new COVID-19 cases with 44 deaths

New Delhi, July 28: India recorded 20,557 new COVID-19 cases with 44 deaths in the last 24 hours, Union Health Ministry data on Thursday said.

The country's Active Caseload currently stands at 1,46,323 and it constitutes 0.33% of the country's total Positive Cases.

Consequently, India's recovery rate stands at 98.47%. 19,216 patients have recovered in the last 24 hours and the cumulative tally of recovered patients (since the beginning of the pandemic) is now at 4,32,86,787.

The last 24 hours saw a total of 3,96,783 COVID-19 tests being conducted. India has so far conducted over 87.40 Cr (87,40,08,037) cumulative tests.

The Weekly Positivity Rate in the country currently stands at 4.71% and the Daily Positivity rate is reported to be 5.18%.

India's COVID-19 vaccination coverage has exceeded 203.21 crore (2,03,21,82,347) as per provisional reports till 7 am today.

The countrywide vaccination drive was rolled out on January 16 last year with healthcare workers getting inoculated in the first phase. Vaccination of frontline workers started from February 2 last year.

The next phase of COVID-19 vaccination commenced on March 1 last year for people over 60 years of age and those aged 45 and above with specified comorbid conditions. India launched vaccination for all people aged more than 45 years from April 1 last year.

The government then decided to expand its vaccination drive by allowing everyone above 18 years of age to be inoculated against the viral disease from May 1 last year. The next phase of vaccination commenced from January 3 for adolescents in the age group of 15-18 years.

India began administering precaution doses of vaccines to healthcare and frontline workers and those aged 60 and above with comorbidities from January 10.

The country began inoculating children aged 12-14 from March 16 and also removed the comorbidity clause, making all people aged above 60 eligible for the precaution dose of Covid vaccine.