Covid-19: India Logs 35,662 More Cases, 281 Deaths

India's daily Covid numbers jumped by over 3 per cent as the country reported 35,662 new cases on Saturday, a day after record 2.5 vaccinations in a day, reports media.

The country reported 281 Covid-related deaths in the past 24 hours, reports NDTV.

The data from the Health Ministry shows that Kerala contributed 23,260 fresh cases and 131 deaths in the last 24 hours. There are 5,37,823 persons under observation in the state, of whom 26,363 are in isolation wards of various hospitals.

Maharashtra reported 3,586 cases and 67 fatalities to India's daily number. Maharashtra's Covid-19 recovery rate stands at 97.08 per cent, while the fatality rate is 2.12 per cent. There are 48,451 active cases in the state now.

Nearly 90 per cent of people in the state capital Mumbai are estimated to have Covid-19 antibodies, according to the civic body survey released on Friday. The fifth blood serum survey which tests for antibodies, known as a serosurvey conducted between August and early September included 8,674 adults out of which almost 65 per cent of the subjects were vaccinated.

The survey also revealed that more females had Covid-19 antibodies compared to their male counterparts at 88.29 per cent compared to 85.07 per cent.

India administered 466 vaccine doses per second as it set a new world record of 2.5 crore vaccinations in a day for the first time on Friday. The number of vaccination administered on September 17 is equal to the "population of Australia", the Health Ministry said on Twitter.

China inoculated the most number of people in a day - 2.47 crore - in June.

PM Modi dedicated the success of the vaccination drive to the country's doctors, innovators, administrators, nurses, healthcare and all front-line workers.

"Every Indian would be proud of today's record vaccination numbers. I acknowledge our doctors, innovators, administrators, nurses, healthcare and all front-line workers who have toiled to make the vaccination drive a success. Let us keep boosting vaccination to defeat Covid-19," PM Modi tweeted.

The numbers went up steadily through the day with the cumulative number of doses administered in the country crossing 79.33 crores at midnight, according to data on the Co-WIN portal. At the current vaccination rate, 38 per cent of the population will be vaccinated by December 31.

In recent days, India has reported more than one crore Covid shots in a day on three occasions - September 6, August 31 and August 27.

India needs to build on the momentum of Friday's record-breaking vaccination and consider having weekly days to push the drive aggressively, Dr Randeep Guleria, chief of Delhi's All India Institutes of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) told NDTV.

"We need to see how do we sustain this. This has been an ongoing process. We have to see how we reach a stage where we do so many doses on a single day. We will need to see how we get people to come in such large numbers," he said.

World Health Organisation's (WHO) approval for the emergency use authorisation (EUA) to Covid-19 vaccine Covaxin, developed by the Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech, is likely to be delayed till October 5.