COVID-19 second wave on downswing: Centre

VK Paul, Member-Health, Niti Aayog said during a briefing as quoted by The Indian Express, " It is reassuring that we are on the downswing of the second wave, and it will be sustained if restrictions open up systematically as the time comes."

The Centre has so far provided more than 22 crore vaccine doses to the states and Union Territories, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said on Thursday.

The vaccines have been provided through the free of cost category and the direct state procurement category, it said.

As per data available this morning, of this, the total consumption, including wastages is 20,17,59,768 doses.

More than 1.84 crore doses are still available with the states to be administered, furthermore, 11 lakh vaccine doses are in the pipeline and will be received by the states within the next 3 days, the government said.

Over 2.11 lakh new COVID-19 cases and 3,847 deaths apparently due to the infection were reported in the last 24 hours in the South Asian country India.

With 2,11,298 new infections, the country's caseload has further surged to 27,369,093.

The COVID-19 toll has further increased to 3,15,235.

The active cases in the country have dipped further to 24,199,07 while the national recovery percentage has further improved to 89.66%.