India Records 2,975 More Deaths, Lowest Daily Cases since Apr 9

India's overall Covid case count rose to 2.81 crore on Tuesday morning with 1.27 lakh new infections, the lowest daily rise since April 9, and 2,975 deaths, reports NDTV.

The country is now witnessing a drop in cases over the amid a battle against the second Covid wave.

India's positivity rate, which has been below 10 percent for over a week now, stood at 6.6 percent this morning. Tamil Nadu saw the highest fresh cases in the country with 27,936 infections.

The World Health Organization (WHO) earlier on Monday said the COVID-19 variant first found in India- B.1.617 - will henceforth be referred to as the 'Delta variant'.

Mutations have made the fight against the novel coronavirus pandemic more challenging. "No country should be stigmatised for detecting and reporting Covid variants," said Dr Maria Van Kerkhove, Technical lead COVID-19 at WHO."

The Indian government on Monday told states to publish vaccination slots based on the availability of vaccines with digital platform COWIN offering the option to reschedule vaccine sessions. COWIN "does not collect any information about COVID-19 infection history of any person," the health ministry said.

The Supreme Court flagged 'various flaws' in centre's vaccine decisions, including those linked to pricing on Monday. Centre has said it aims to vaccinate the entire population by the end of 2021.

Ninety-one nations have been severely affected by India's decision to ban vaccine exports, Dr Soumya Swaminathan, the WHO's Chief Scientist, told NDTV on Monday.

The government will soon begin tests on mixing vaccines and the effectiveness of a single dose of Covishield at a time the shortage of Covid shots has slowed down vaccinations.